In the Defence
by Garcka
Summary: What if the Gatekeeper hadn't been there to stall for Molly? What if Michael and the other Warden's hadn't shown up to help her? AR. Contains spoilers for Proven Guilty. Character Death's. Dresden/Murphy. DISCONTINUED
1. In the Defence

**In the Defence**

**Series One**

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In the Defence

**Characters:** Dresden, Molly, Morgan, Merlin, Ramirez, Lily, Fix, Murphy  
**Timeline:** AR, Set during the events in Proven Guilty when Molly is put on trial  
**Summary:** Adventure Tragedy. Contains Character Death.  
**Author's notes:** Apologies for taking a few paragraphs from Proven Guilty, but I had to make this story fit somehow though. I also had to make Morgan a little bit meaner so you don't feel sorry for him.

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"Warden Dresden," he said in a deadly quiet tone. "Your compassion does you credit. But as you yourself pointed out, our resources are spread to thin already. The Council cannot afford to have a regional commander of the Wardens burdened with a hazardous rehabilitation of a warlock. The duties of the war and of containing the increasing occurrence of black magic must have your full attention."

Oh, God.

"The Laws of Magic are clear. The prisoner admits her guilt. I am not unmoved by the prisoners plight, but we are involved in a war for our very survival."

Ohgodohgodohgod…

"I therefore take no pleasure in announcing the prisoner's fate. It is the judgement of the Senior Council that the prisoner is a warlock, guilty of breaking the fourth law." He lifted his chin and said, very calmly, "The sentence is death. To be carried out immediately."

"Morgan," the Merlin said quietly.

Morgan looked at Molly. Then at the Merlin. He drew up a small smile and took a grip on the sword, lifting it vertically before him.

I looked frantically round the room. Ramirez, like most of the wizards there, had a stunned look on his face. He looked back at me with a blank expression, and gave me a little twitch of his shoulders. Lily looked remote and troubled. Fix's expression was blank, but his jaws were clenched hard, muscles standing out and creating shadows on his face.

"Harry?" Molly whispered, shaking so hard she could hardly speak. "Harry?"

I turned back to the Merlin, his eyes were hard, his face as unyielding as stone. Morgan looked cautiously at me – but it didn't stop him from moving toward Molly with a steady, dreamlike slowness, sword in hand.

"Harry," Molly sobbed.

I promised Charity.

I took my staff in both hands and stepped forward, putting myself between Morgan and the girl. "Morgan," I said. "Stars and stones, man. Please don't do this. She's a _child_. We should be _helping _her,"

My words slowed him, and he froze in place for a terrible heartbeat. Then he closed his eyes and grinned, savouring the moment where he would finally have the chance to hurt Harry Dresden. He opened his eyes again and whispered, "Stand aside Dresden."

I look wildly around the room for someone, anyone to help, for some way to stop this madness. All I saw were the distraught faces of the people I once though I could count on. Refusing to even let themselves think about opposing the honoured Merlin.

Realising that once again, battered and bruised Harry Dresden was going to have to stand on his own again the powers that be, I faced Morgan for probably the last time as a comrade and tightened my grip on my trusty staff. No way was I letting go of this thing.

Meeting my eyes and seeing that no force on this earth could have made me move, Morgan stopped and looked for answers at the Merlin.

Though the Merlin continued to hold a blank face, I could feel a sense of final satisfaction emanating from him. Since that fateful day the Council had voted in my favour for the murder of my mentor, the Merlin stopped seeing a pesky orphan and started seeing a troublesome stain that threatened his position. "If you refuse to move Dresden," He ordered to me (no longer using my Warden title), "You will be branded a traitor to the Council and sentenced to immediate execution," he left the words hanging in the air.

The words were just for formality now. At that moment, no one in that warehouse believed I was going to stand aside and leave the young girl defenceless.

The Merlin sighed, as if expelling a decades worth of pent up rage and nodded, ever so indiscreetly to Morgan, signifying an action that he already understood the meaning of. Morgan turned back to me and began walking forwards, practically bouncing with each step from the thought of finally killing the tiresome bug known as me. From behind me, Molly fell onto her knees on the bare concrete and let tears pour out of her eyes.

My own eyes closed for a brief second and memories of times past came into view. The first was in this very same warehouse just a short time ago, when I had stood and done nothing when Morgan decapitated a god-dam child for a crime that the poor boy didn't know of or possibly understand. My forehead frowned as I pictured the bright red blood flowing freely from the lifeless body, its stain tainting the area with death as it was still doing now and probably years to come.

My second thought was of Karrin Murphy's face that very same afternoon, when I told her about the defenceless kid I had failed to protect. I'd never forget the pain she showed on her face when she asked me what I had done about it.

"_You saw it?"_

"_Yes."_

"_You didn't stop it?"_

I continued to talk to her about it and convinced her that the child was to far gone to be saved, but I will never forget that look of fear in her eyes, that look of disappointment when she dug deep inside her friend and found a dark hole in the person she thought would always be lit. Murph was the one person in the world who I knew I would never give up on. The person whose side I would always stand by if things got tough and that moment made me feel that I might as well have done the execution myself. I'm still trying to convince myself that the child couldn't have been helped.

My final thought was of the conversation I had with Charity while trying to convince her that taking Molly to the Council was the right thing to do. Looking back on it now, I should have grabbed on to my past self's shoulders, yelling at him to snap out of it and to not believe the Molly would even stand a chance up against the Merlin, especially with me standing by her. In the eyes of the White Council, I was the black sheep that had wormed its way past their laws and came out the other side without an ounce of remorse.

Most of all, I remembered the promise I made to Charity about protecting Molly. The promise I made to a Mother that I would protect a Daughter with my very life and to bring her home safe again. I gave her my word and she returned it with her trust. The kind of trust that would have made God him-or-her-self, green with envy.

Opening my eyes again, I looked at the murderer who was still advancing upon me, and therefore Molly's position. He was about to slaughter two, living humans and he was actually smiling. The BASTARD was actually looking forward to this. Holding onto that anger, I built it up inside me, piling it on top of emotion after emotion until it felt as though I was glowing with power. While anger can be a great source of energy, it is also one of the more difficult to control. Stray ends of my anger poured into my muscles, making me clench my teeth and turn my knuckles white from holding my staff with extreme prejudice. Energy also poured into my garments on me. My shield bracelet became suddenly charged with power, making it feel like I could hold off a tornado with the bracelet alone. My rings were suddenly filled with suppressed kinetic energy, ready for me to fling my enemies away with a simple flick of my hand. Through my arm, I felt my staff slightly vibrate with power. The runes I had carved along the wooden handle myself began to glow a bright, florescent orange as the tool I had used in countless battles before me, (and hopefully countless battles ahead), became charged in manner it was so used too. Any energy left that I had still not stored in my spiritual battery, drained into my trusty duster hanging off my shoulders, working its way into my defensive spells that had been set up for the explicit intention of not letting anything past the fabric. Physical or otherwise.

When Morgan was just a few meters away, yet again he stopped. By this point it was just getting annoying and he had lost the sense of doubt he made me feel when I was deciding whether or not he was going to try and kill us. The man I was only beginning to respect had shown his true colours, even without the use of a soulgaze. Looking closer at him though, I realised that he hadn't stopped out of choice. While that look of satisfaction remained on his smiling face, not a single part of him was moving. He was literally frozen in place.

Keeping Morgan just on the edge of my vision, I realised that everyone in that room was also suffering a similar problem. A group of huddled apprentices in the far corner had frozen looks of nausea on them and I could actually see a small bulge of vomit just below the throat of one of them. The Merlin still sat in his podium glaring daggers at me, but I shuffled my head slightly to the side and he continued to focus intently on the spot, several inches to the left of my ear.

Tuning my ears slightly, I heard shallow breathing behind me and quickly spun around with my staff trained on the time-stopping stranger.

_Or rather, I tried to spin around with my staff in hand._ What happened instead was that the part of me that could still move, turned and left my physical body still defiantly standing in defence of Molly. I looked at my arm, and it was every so slightly transparent.

As I wondered at my ghost…like…ness, I saw the dull shape of a small figure walking towards me. Lowering my arm slowly, I was presented with the still, very much moving, Lily as she descended on my position, her long, white hair blowing ever slightly from the breeze of power that was emanating from her.

Being a tall troll that I am, Lily had to look up at me and began to shake her head slightly, while still keeping her eyes trained on me. Looking up at me in pity, she asked me "Harry, I know you're angry, but are you sure you want to do this?" I continued to stare at her. "What you're about to do is declare war on the Merlin. You won't make it out of here alive."

Closing my eyes briefly, I felt to check for my power that I had originally gathered in and around me, and found only a blank slate.

Sensing what I was doing, Lily sighed and looked down at her feet. "Have no fear for your power Harry, it is still pent up in your physical body, ready for when you will inevitably need it." She looked back at my eyes. "I was forced to slow down time to try and convince you not to do this, but the only way you could talk was if I temporarily unleashed your spirit" She frowned while trying to think of the right words, "This is what another person would see inside you if they initiated one of your soulgazes and don't try to look at yourself because you won't seem any different. No one has the ability to literally see themselves for who they truly are. One would go mad."

Before she had time to talk about spirits again (I'm not a fan of theological wisdom), I walked up and embraced her into a hug. "Goodbye Lily. Thank-you for all you've done for me." She initially tensed up as her faerie defences kicked in, but I felt her quickly suppress them and she wrapped her arms around me.

"Farewell, Harry Dresden. I wish you all my luck"

Releasing her, I looked back into her eyes and a thought suddenly sprang into my head. "Lily? Can I still move around for a bit until you start time again?"

"You can't take anything with you Harry. When I start the world again, you'll shoot back to your physical vessel. Only your memories will remain."

Still holding her shoulders, I turned my head to look at my battered 'vessel'. My eyes, no longer impaired by the veil of time, saw the power glowing from my beaten face. My duster was glowing brightly with wards, but fashion wise, it was still full of tears and nicks in the fabric. Hell's bells I was a shabby creature, I'm surprised anyone was willing to even look at me. I understood now why people weren't afraid of my appearance when the assassin of the day came to knock at my door.

Still smiling, I turned back to Lily's face, "I know, but there's just one last person I need to talk to."

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**Next Chapter:**One last Goodbye


	2. One Last Goodbye

One Last Goodbye

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**Characters:** Dresden, Murphy  
**Author's notes:** We all know it. Dresden and Murphy should be together.

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Opening my eyes again, I found myself suddenly in a simple, suburban kitchen. The walls had been painted the familiar pink and whites stripes that I was so used to when I came to this house. Like back in the warehouse, the effects of the time distortion made everything glow with a florescent light, especially items which lasting emotion had been poured into over the course of this house's lifetime.

Through the doorway into the living room, I could see a sword rack hanging on top of a mantle over a small fireplace. It had symbolised to the owner strength and control in which she had tried to live her life by and as such, liquid light was pouring off it and dripping onto the carpet below. Surrounding the items was large sofa and an armchair, floral patterns on both matching the general, cute style of the place.

Perched on the edge of the sofa, with an assortment of gun parts surrounding her, Murphy too was simply frozen in time. A time that for her, felt had been travelling at the pace she was used too. My eyes glanced around her face and even though all I could currently see was a portrait of her, I still smiled it her wavy blond hair that covered on a part of her blue eyes. She had worry lines across her forehead from frowning in the middle of a time stop. My best guess is that she was worried about her work today. Only recently, my actions had prevented her from working on a high profile case, which the big wigs upstairs were probably deciding whether they could justify grounds of firing her.

She was a great cop. Her open mind and willingness to dig deeper into cases allowed her to easily solve most crimes, but Murphy's job at SI wasn't to find the secrets behind the murders or the purpose's of insane rituals. SI was created to take the unexplainable cases from other departments and find a simple, scientific reason for them before filing them away to never be looked at again. When my world is concerned, science rarely factors at all.

Making me jump slightly, a hazy transparent glow begin shaking around Murphy, her spirit self trying to adapt to the shock of suddenly being unconnected to her body. When her soul jumped off the sofa after seeing that she no longer had the grip on reality as she thought she did, I understood now what Lily had said about how when people saw me, they would only see the character from a soulgaze.

Instead of an mortal Murphy standing up in a standard issue police jacket and loose fitting jeans, what I saw was the beautiful sight of something even now I would never forget the image of. Ethereal Murphy was dressed head to toe in a long, white flowing dress that glowed in the face of the darkness of the room. Across the table in front of her, which she was now actually walking through (not helping her panic levels one bit), was the glowing remains of a long sword. Replacing the parts of a gun that I was aware of, such as the trigger and the barrel, I instead saw what I suspected was a sword handle and a long blade which took up the entire table.

As this unique position gave me the ability to see the confidence in Murphy, I also saw the stains. Across parts of her dress were splotches of grey, intermixed with red, marking the times of her life where she felt she failed herself, like growth rings on a tree. While some parts of her hair were flowing around her face, like she was standing in front of a summer breeze, there were also occasional wisps that had knotted together or turned slightly brown, more so signifying memories that she would rather forgot, most of them probably involving me in some way.

During this time while I'd been dwelling on how many of those flaws were because of me, spirit Murphy was beginning to show signs of panic. Normally, she would have reached for her gun, but seeing the detached sword lying on the table stopped her and she began to back away, trying to understand what was happening to her.

As she began to back away towards the door that led to her kitchen, the door in which I was currently standing in, I decided to make no move and allow Murphy to try and understand on her own. Eventually though, in a slightly more calmer state, her back bumped into my shirt and she suddenly whirled around with her fists in the air, ready to attempt to beat the shit out of what should have been an empty doorway.

When her eyes met mine though, her entire body tensed up as she decided if I really was her good friend Harry and not some demon attempting to gain her trust once again. During a soulgaze, each person sees the other for who they truly are, there are no lies but neither is there truth. There is only the personality and fears of that person, presented on a plate. When Murphy looked me up and down, her muscles suddenly relaxed with ease and she lowered her fists.

Though she tried to hold back a smile, her spirit wouldn't let her and I saw the corners of her mouth turn up, much to the clear opposition from her will.

"Dresden," she asked in her calmest voice possible, "Why, the hell, am I glowing, what, the hell, happened to my gun and why, the hell, are you glowing?"

Taken aback by this, I stuttered for a brief second while my brain realized that Murph would be seeing my soul as well. During this brief period of silence, Murphy had already got another conversation started, something along the lines of 'this always happens when you're around'. Ignoring all of this, I looked down at her and saw the strength beginning to flow back into her, the edges of the dark splotches beginning to turn white to match her outfit.

"…and now you turn me into a ghost. Of all the…" She didn't get out the last past of her, no doubt, convincing argument as I had wrapped my arms around her back and pushed my lips over hers.

For a tense few seconds, I felt her back muscles stiffen and her neck begin to tilt away from me. I had wanted to kiss Karrin for a while now, and I never assumed that she might not feel the same way about me. A few years ago, we had talked about our feelings and how we shouldn't act upon them. I don't have much experience with relationships, but I'm pretty sure that that conversation would need both parties to at least _like_ each other.

Just before the point where she would have broken our kiss (actually just my kiss for now), she suddenly stopped herself and began to kiss be back. No longer held back by physical constraints, I felt the energy and emotions pour from her and into me. Unclenching her fists, she pulled her arms up and wrapped them around my neck, both of us now pulling each other into the embrace. I could feel my mind beginning to go blank as all the worries and the pain began to drift from my mind, leaving me with nothing but the feeling of Karrin's soft lips against my own.

As her petite hands began running through my hair, I returned the favour by slowly drawing small circles on her back with me palms, eliciting a soft but sensual moan from her. I knew there was an important thing I should be focusing on, but I just didn't care. I've had good kisses in the past sure. Ones that seemed to last for hours, but with Karrin, time just didn't seem important. All there was, was the heat of the moment as I pulled her in closer to me, never wanting to let her go.

Eventually though, one of my memories briefly flashed through my mind. That image of Molly, kneeling down on the floor at my feet, her face wet with tears as she looked to me for help.

I still had a job to. I couldn't let Molly down, even if I wanted nothing more than to merely sit next to Karrin and hold her. She must have also felt my hesitation through me, as we both broke off the kiss at the same time, our foreheads resting on each other's and our mouths desperately tried to keep up our oxygen supply to our fast-beating hearts, which were now matching in strength and pace.

As Karrin tried to keep her breathing under control, she looked deep into my eyes, "You know Harry, you could have come over to see me rather than evicting me from my body." I grinned back at her.

"But I wouldn't be me if I went for the simplest answer. The more effort you put into it, the greater the sense of satisfaction and plus, it's only polite to put a bit of thought into wooing a lady such as yourself." Karrin smiled and gently punched me on the chest.

"You chauvinistic pig, as dead impressed as I am though," She raised an eyebrow, "I'd rather you put me back into my body so we can start on some more familiar ground"

My mouth smiled at the thought of doing some familiar things on the ground with Karrin, but this smile failed miserable in attempting to reach my eyes. Karrin saw this and her face pulled a confused look, arms no longer around my neck but instead stroking my arms. Hell's bells that felt nice. "That's the problem Karrin," I looked away from her, "This may be the last time we get to see each other."

Her hands tightened around my shoulders and she frowned in concern. "Harry? What do you mean? Why won't you be coming back?"

At some point during this conversation, I must have started crying, as she reached towards my face with her hand and stroked away a tear. "Talk to me Harry. Maybe I can help…"

Already I was shaking my head and looking down at my feet. "I'm sorry Karrin. I want to be here with you, talk to you, touch you, but someone still needs my help." I forced a smile onto my face and looked deep into her eyes, "Goodbye Karrin Murphy, and I'm so sorry." I leaned forward again and once again kissed her. She automatically leaned into me to accept it, but I had my eyes open and I saw the tears now beginning to drip from her eyes. No longer wanting to drawing off the inevitable. I pulled away and sent a tiny stream of will towards Lily, waiting for my signal. For a few short seconds, Karrin looked into my eyes before suddenly being pulled back into her body.

As I faded back towards mine, I briefly heard Karrin's phone ring and saw her physical body (now full of life) turn in my direction and ask, "Harry? Please don't go."

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**Next Chapter:** The Onslaught


	3. The Onslaught

The Onslaught

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**Characters:** Dresden, Molly, Morgan, Merlin, Ramirez, Lascial  
**Author's notes:** The relationship between Harry and Lascial is a little ahead of its time. He has already started calling her Lash, and she is regaining a sense of humanity as a result. A thank you to Anon for pointing out some flaws in my plot.

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I kept my eyes closed for longer than was necessary. Until I was sure that I still had to engage reality, I just wanted that moment with Karrin to last a little bit longer. Just to remember the feel of her lips once more. As time wore on though, the feeling began to fade. I could still see, hear, feel and especially taste the moment, but my subconscious was already forcing me to focus on more important things. I had met my subconscious and the abstract arsehole was ruining perfectly beautiful moments.

Giving up the struggle for current control over me, I opened my eyes and took in all of the events of my current predicament. Until I had properly focused, Lily was kind enough to hold off an active timeline. Looking round though; I saw that now she and Fix had disappeared from the space behind me they were previously standing in.

With no longer any supernatural force to hold it, I looked around the room and watched as people and objects were beginning to catch up with me, including the young, nauseated apprentice whose vomit had now reached his mouth as, in slow motion, he began to run towards the side of the room.

Turning back towards the Merlin, he still held that look of satisfaction, but was unconsciously tensing up his shoulder muscles. Good. A man can gain a lot of confidence in himself when he realises that his enemy is afraid of him. Why even now, I could feel my stored power beginning to flow back into me as my spirit realigned itself with my body. I felt the power in my staff and the protection in my duster and, for a split second, believed that I might make it through this.

Sadly, this confidence was short lived, as I turned back towards Morgan and failed to see any indication he feared for his life. Smiling at me, he continued to hold his sword upright next to his body and his legs had just started to break out into a run.

"_I can help you, you know Harry"_

I briefly swore and focused inwards into my mind. _"Now is not the time Lash. Just because I'm in a bit of trouble here, does not mean I will take you up on your offer. Go away"._

Rather than get a small chuckle from Lash, I heard only silence as she pondered her position. Inevitably though, her voice spoke out has she shared her opinions, _"Don't forget that you're risking my life as well. I won't bore you with the details, but at least your conscious will be accepted with open arms after you die." _I mulled that thought over and shoved it into a mental storage locker. _"Do you even believe for a second that a higher power is going to accept me with open arms?"_

I made a mental shrub and focused back on Lash. _"Lash, I don't even believe there is a life after death. From what I've seen…and done, I can't believe that there is someone all powerful being out there looking after us."_

For the first time ever during our non-consensual binding, I actually heard Lash verbally stumble. _"But…but why would you risk your life then? What's the point in trying to live a morally just life if you see no reward at the end?"_

"_This is what you fail to understand. I don't live my life to hope for a much better one later; I live it so I have the opportunity to help others." _I had probably just slapped her, _"After we die, our bodies will fade but the memory of our actions will make a mark on this world. I want my image to bring a smile to those who might think of me."_

After my little monologue, which I swear I had just pulled out of nowhere, my mind was clear of any more invading thoughts. She was probably just sulking in the back roots of my subconscious somewhere. Turning back to the problem at hand, I noticed that barely a few milliseconds had passed when I had started talking to her. One of the benefits of a conversation with Lash is that all my thoughts with her travel at warp speed.

I straightened by back, readied my weapons and focused on Morgan. It was lucky I chose that exact moment to do so, I time suddenly reverted itself back to normal and Morgan put all his weight into an overhead sweep with his sword. Sadly for Morgan, this was a powerful attack that many enemies of mine, most notable vampires, had tried against me. Since I was still here, they had quite clearly failed.

Now, purely on reflex, I waited till the last possible moment where the force of his sword outweighed the rest of his body and punched my hand towards his stomach. Though I had no hope of physically reaching him, I whispered the activating words into one of my rings and a weeks worth of kinetic energy flew out of it and into Morgan's stomach. Already overbalanced, Morgan was sent flying backwards in a front somersault, the tip of his sword missing my collar bone by a fraction of an inch. He flew through the air towards the Merlin's desk and landed in an untidy heap in front of him. Hell's Bells that felt good. I'd waited fifteen years to give Morgan a sucker punch and I had successfully done it…with style! Cue trumpets and cheerleaders.

It was official now. I was at war with the White council. I had attacked one of the head Wardens (even though it was technically in protection of my own life) and I would be branded a traitor and an enemy and would be punished accordingly….with a whopping big sword through the back of my neck.

Surprising myself though, I didn't care. Even as Morgan jumped up again and got sorted, I found it hard to worry about the rules of a council who had just tried to execute me. Even as Morgan began pressing for another attack, I glanced around the room. Sensing a disturbance that they would rather not choose sides on, the apprentices had already sprinted from the room in order to avoid the problem until it goes away.

My heart momentarily collapsed when I scanned for Molly in the area where I had last seen her but only found the blood stained spot where she had been sitting. From the far corner where Ramirez had been patiently standing, he managed to catch my attention with a brief wave of his arms. He was holding Molly at his side, partially hidden by his grey cloak. It appeared to be as if he was restraining her, but he glanced at my eyes and gave an inconspicuous wink. He wasn't holding her against her will. I understood that he couldn't risk helping me and also be classed as a traitor, but he could protect Molly for the moment from the inevitable backlashes that might occur during the scuffle. Bit of an understatement, but it was disorganised, unplanned and dangerous. A scuffle.

I briefly nodded to him and he half dragged/half carried the wet eyed Molly out of the room. Suddenly reminding myself that a very angry Warden was heading towards my back, I turned towards Morgan quick enough so that I could bring my staff up on reflex and block the sword that could've sliced right down my body. I had a loud crack echo across the room as enchanted sword met enchanted staff and neither gave way.

Grinning, I quietly thanked Karrin for all those years of staff combat training and pressed in for an attack. Unintentionally holding back our magic's and deciding to expel ten years of built up anger, Morgan and I circled around each other, testing physical skill against physically skill and producing sparks across the floor and cracking sounds around the room. Spinning my staff around my head for momentum, I aimed it to the side of Morgan's skull and let fly, but he quickly parried away my blow and tried to lunge towards my chest. The benefits of a staff are that either end can be used for attack. Jumping to the side in an effort to dodge the blade, I used the momentum from Morgan's parry to bring the other end of the staff upwards and straight into his chin.

Small droplets of blood spat from his mouth as Morgan's head whipped backwards and he whirled around me a few paces to steady himself. Though I had managed to split his bottom lip, he shrugged of the bruise that will eventually follow and leapt towards me again. Weapon met weapon every as we both tried to rain down blows on each other, sounds of our fight and breathing shouting around the room, but in the end, Morgan had fought with a sword for decades more than me and I began to slow down and only just avoid his deadly attacks, which to be fair, were most of them.

Studying my flagging movements, Morgan suddenly threw his sword to the side to free up his hands and lunged towards my throat in one, fluid movement. I managed to swing a few blows at him, but he was now pressing so close that I couldn't build up any power to hurt him. I began to yell activating words to shoot fire at him, but he cut of my breathing and pressed his fingers into my oesophagus. I couldn't speak, so I resorted to bashing his shoulders with my free hand, but he became unconcerned by the blows. Morgan wanted to kill me with his bare hands and watch the life drain slowly out of me.

When dark spots began to cloud the edges of my vision, I could see no other way out. A pang of doubt crossed my mind before I mentally shook the thought away and looked straight at Morgan, staring directly into his eyes. Though I was afraid of what I might find from attempting a soul gaze with Morgan, I might have a chance to convince him that I'm not the bad guy. That I only tried to do the right thing. Before Morgan has a chance to realise what I was doing, so caught up in the current task of killing me, his eyes widened and I flew into his mind and was covered in darkness.

Very slowly, images began to swim into my vision, brief second flashes of things that Morgan had been forced to do in the name of the Council. One such image was of Morgan when he must have been a young adult, so full of promise that he had already been presented with a Warden cloak and wore it proudly. His straight hair had been cut at a fashionable shoulder length style and his eyes glittered with pride whenever he glanced at a Council member. He was standing before the Council in another one of the desolate warehouses that was used for the meetings. Kneeling in front of him was a scrawny woman, maybe only a few years younger than him and covered in rags of what must have been shredded clothes. She was breathing heavily and looking down at the floor, her eyes closed and waiting for her end. Morgan then drew his long sword out and held it above his head, before hesitating and standing still for a few moments. He must have been terrified as hell, because steady hands I was so used to today, were shaking with fear and his face looked above the woman so he could pretend she wasn't there. Closing his eyes and turning his head away slightly, he rapidly brought down his sword onto the back of the woman's neck and a rush of blood sprayed onto his cloak. As the image began to fade, he lowered his sword and stumbled to the back of the room, refusing to meet eyes with any of the Council studying him intently.

I wonder if Morgan even remembered that kid who he used to be. The innocent child who would hesitate and wonder if he was really doing the right thing before he killed anyone. For this moment to have been imprinted onto his soul, it must have affected him in a catastrophic way. I pitied that poor boy. He had probably been forced to kill that woman.

The next image I was shown must have been only half a decade ago. He had scars that I have already seen on him before, some of them caused by me, and he had flattened his hair in the formal way that people remembered him for. He was standing a little to the edge of a long table, capable of seating at around six people. The candles scattered along the oak desk only created the smallest amount of light, which only just managed to illuminate Morgan's face before being sucked into a wall of darkness that surrounded the table. Nothing showed beyond it.

There were other people surrounding the table but all of them had their heads bowed and there bodies were shielded by a black robe. Judging by the shape of some of the robes, I didn't believe for a second that all of them were human. Seated along the table were six people I was well acquainted with, all of them at some point in the past having tried to kill me for some obscure sense of justice.

On one side of the table was a hell spawn, a creature of darkness, a demon called Chaunzaggoroth, but to me, I called him Chauncy. He was a scaly creature, with opposable pincers rather than fingers and a long, beaked nose. This was actually a fashionable look in the deeps, so the only way I could identify him, was from a pair of wire framed spectacles that sat upon his beak. Many years ago, I had been reading an obscure bit of text and discovered the name of a knowledge demon. Names have power. Just knowing his name, I had called him up several times in the past for information and was provided with it in exchange for parts of my name. Like me being able to call up Chauncy, with my name he could have called me down. He actually had the nerve to try and bribe me for a full name several years back, but I exorcised him and haven't called him since. While he wasn't the most powerful demon in hell, he made up for it in information. You'd be surprised how many of humanities secrets pass briefly through the deep. I glanced down to see where the summoning ring was that was keeping him contained, but I saw nothing. He wasn't attacking anyone, just seating there, smiling. Fear and worry rushed through me as I wondered what kind of dark meeting was this that has a demon agree to play nicely.

I focused on the relaxed person sitting next to him and understood why the man wasn't even leaning away from the demon. Hell, they were probably related in some way. Sat next to Chauncy, was a fallen angel, member of the Order of the Blackened Denarius, a society of thirty fallen angels cast out from the gates of heaven and forced to live with the mortals. While they no longer had the full angel weapon kit, the fallen were some of the toughest opponents I have faced and have easily shrugged off my spells in the past. I had already met more fallen than I am comfortable with, but this one I hadn't seen. All I recognised was the glowing Sigil on his forehead, written in the script of the angels. Long, dark hair covered most of his face, but I swear there were, what looked like spines, protruding from the edges of his hair line.

Sitting across from him and also at ease, was the Faerie queen of the Unseelie court of Winter, Queen Mab. She ruled with an iron fist (theoretical iron of course because the touch of real iron would probably kill her) in the winter realm of the Nevernever and, at this current moment, has every right to be angry at me. It had only been a few hours since my assault on her castle of Arctis-Tor (basically her capital) and I had got away scot free. Right now, meeting her again would produce a similar effect as getting thrown in with the lions and it's not going to be her blood coating the walls. While she always had a certain aura of suffering, her focus now was on the fallen sitting across from her. Though she tried to hide it, gears were turning in Mab's head as she curiously studied the creature. Maybe the Denarians were so powerful that even a faerie queen had very right to fear them.

At the other end of the table were two more people who, (surprise surprise), I had pissed off at some point during my short lifetime as saviour of the world. On the left, sat a vampire sorceress of the Black court, the smallest, but probably one of the toughest after the weaker members of is faction were wiped out centuries ago and the strongest ones were left to carry on. Mavra herself was probably the strongest and smartest vampire I had met, mainly because she was one of my few enemies who didn't try to kill me by just chucking foot soldiers in my way. I flinched upon remembering the time when she used a flame-thrower on me and I nearly lost the use of my hand. Sitting across from her, though I couldn't see his face, was the Red King, current ruler of the red court, the largest and not-as-powerful-as-Black-but-still-darn-powerful, vampire court in play. They were the ones currently at war with the White Court, so I and all the other Wardens had been forced to sit through a two hour long presentation on the Red King. Rather than recognize him by sight though, we were trained to detect his scent of dirty evil, and this guy was currently leaking bucketfuls of the stuff.

Though everyone at this table, would skin me alive if I ever met them face to face unprepared, they were nothing compared to the shock I felt when I stared at the person sitting at the head of the table. My throat tightened and my stomach lurched, when the Merlin began issuing statements to the other attendees about certain plans in action and possible outcomes.

Since no man, woman or thing currently surrounding the desk were trying to maul each other to death, they must have had something in common. For The Merlin to even consort with these creatures, he would have to offer something in return. Information.

I quickly stared at all the people around the table again, but all of the pieces had begun to fit together. The attacks the vampires made on the White Council had to have information from the inside to cause so many losses to our ranks. They knew where to hit us. They knew our defences. They knew our weaknesses.

Though I believed my allies when they said Mab was crazy, she would need a bloody good reason to not attack the vampires after they broke through their borders and ran amok through Winter territory. They were let in. Now I came to think about it, there wasn't any mention of faerie attacks when the White Council went into the Nevernever to escape. After such a violent intrusion, no faerie soldier came to investigate the racket, because they were told not to.

After the Order of the Blackened Denarius had first showed up on the doorstep of my fate, I had immediately looked up information on them through the use of the Archive, a young girl who was used as a depository of knowledge in the White Council. Little Ivy told me that even though she remembered having the information; it was like someone had cut out the data and left a hole in her memory. Ivy was an extremely powerful wizard so only an equally powerful wizard could, I suppose, edit her. The strongest in fact.

This was the Black Council. The hidden organisation that had consistently made life harder for me and my friends in pursuit of chaos and insanity and the great Merlin was part of it.

I focused back on Morgan to compare his level of shock to mine, but all I saw on his face was a smile. The smile of a man who liked what he heard and had probably heard it many times before.

Sensing my gaze, Morgan turned around to face me and the rest of the memory began to fade to blackness. I was no longer looking at Morgan's memory, but instead looking at his soul and his looking back at mine.

"You're dying dresden_." _Morgan smiled, _"Though I can't yet see it, I can still feel my hands closed around your neck and draining the life from you"_

I too could feel the soulgaze coming to an end and as my body called out to my soul, my vision became slightly blurry as the edges and I could feel traces of pressure around my windpipe. I fell to my knees and began to try and grasp the invisible hands that were beginning to shut my airways. Glancing back up at Morgan, I saw a glowing shape standing behind him.

"_I can't believe it Dresden. I've been waiting for this moment for years but I still want to slow it down. Savour it."_ The glow behind him drew up its hands and circled around his neck. _"Say your last goodbyes, as this is going…"_ Sensing something behind him, Morgan span around to meet his attacker but was half a second late. The hands clasped his neck and his back straightened from the surprise of him being attacked in his own mind.

Struggling, but losing energy, Morgan fell to his knees and revealed the angry form of Lash with her hands circled around him. She still wore her white satin dress, but had tied her normally long flowing hair up in a bun, which revealed the lines created on her forehead from sheer sense of effort. Probing quickly through my mind, I found an empty space were Lash used to dwell in. She had jumped from my mind to Morgan's. It wasn't completely unreasonable as technically she was a soul too so why shouldn't she be involved as part of the soulgaze.

Without opening her mouth, Lash turned in my direction, _"Go Harry! I will keep this fool distracted."_

I started to feel more of my physical body in the real world. I some point I must have falling over, because my cheek felt the slightest traces of cold stone. _Are you coming back with me?"_

Looking deep into my eyes, Lash smiled again, _"You gave me my life Harry. Seems only fitting that I return the favour."_

As the image of her and Morgan struggling together faded from my vision, I briefly nodded to her before releasing the effort it was taking me to continue the soulgaze. Turning back to her task, she leapt on top of Morgan and held him close in a bear hug, chanting out words of power that started to seep hellfire from her body and onto Morgan. He threw fists at her body, but they just went straight into her and bounced back out again. I heard a panicked scream from Morgan before being pulled out of the soulgaze and hitting my head on the floor.

Dots swam in front of my eyes before I realised that Morgan had released his hold. Crouching over me, he held his hands to the side of his head and was yelling towards the ceiling. Deciding it would be safer to not be next to Morgan right now; I repositioned my centre of balance and very skilfully rolled backwards away from him.

As I watched him scream while quickly righting myself again, red drops of gas began misting from his eyes and mouth. Random arteries over his body exploded in little bursts, splattering his grey cloak with flecks of blood that just ran straight off it and into a puddle around his knees.

Of all people in the world, I was sure that Morgan would kill himself before he let a member of the Fallen take over his soul, so for him to be physically wounding himself right now, there must be one hell of fight going on inside him. With Lash now asserting her control over Morgan, she might as well have been forcing him to kill himself. At this thought, I realised why she wouldn't be joining me. Lash needed a host to survive, so if Morgan dies, she dies.

I thought sombre thoughts as I carefully approached Morgan and collected my staff which I had dropped on the floor. When I straightened my posture again, all the fight went out of Morgan's blood soaked body and he went as still as a statue. His eyes glanced at me and instead of the dark, white surrounded pupils I had associated with fear, they were golden coloured and practically shining like the sun. Lash winked at me through his eyes and then the body of Morgan fell to the ground with a sharp thud and did not rise again.

The room was silent for the moment, which wasn't that impressive since it was now just me and The Merlin left, but it was a significant silence. I briefly remembered the times that me and Lash had shared and began to feel rather alone now that she was gone. Sure, during the years I had known her she had been trying to convince me to take up the coin and join the dark side, but I had become used to it. Looking back on it now, it seemed kind of humorous when she would try and seduce me at the most inconvenient of times and I had abruptly turned her away. Harry Dresden had even managed to convince a fallen angel to protect those she cared for instead of herself. I was proud of her and I missed her already.

Turing back to the matter at hand, I looked at the sour-faced Merlin, slammed the butt of my staff on the stone and gave him my very best intimidating glare, that had faced down faeries, vampires and warlocks without even raising a finger.

The Merlin smiled and stood up.

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**Next Chapter: **For the People


	4. For the People

For the People

* * *

**Characters:** Dresden, Merlin, Murphy, Apprentices, The guys from SI  
**Author's notes:** My God, this took me a while to write! Dam, I'm proud of it though

* * *

The Merlin smiled and stood up.

I was back at that moment again. The moment when a frightened teenager was led before the White Council to stand trial for the use of black magic in the murder of his guardian and mentor. His life had rested in the balance between seven complete strangers. It was a very close vote that generously gave me permission to live. It was close because one of the most powerful wizards in the world was voting against me.

It's been over a decade since I felt like a very small fish in a very big pond…filled with arsenic, but my muscles still clenched up whenever the Merlin believed he had power over me like I was his property to do as he wishes with.

Even though all decisions were meant to be voted on in the Senior Council, the Merlin still had the tallest podium, so even though I was at least several meters away from him, his increased change in height seemed to loom over the entire warehouse. _Looks are everything, _so I unclenched my shoulders and casually strolled past Morgan's body to stand before The Merlin. Now I come to think of it, I don't actually know his real name. I think a few of the Council members uttered his first name a few times in the past but who were his family. Were they all dead, if not, did they like him. I suppose hearing that your son is the ruler of all the wizards in the world would give a parent a certain level of satisfaction, but only the wizards themselves got to see the true level of power The Merlin held, especially the power over other's lives that he wielded with brute force.

Looking down at me (the arrogant bastard), he shook his head slightly, which I've started to notice a lot of people do when they look at me and frankly it's beginning to get on my nerves. "Well Dresden, it seems that once again you have managed to kill an innocent man with the blatantly wrong use of magic."

Trying to go for a sore spot are you. Well I can easily top that. "I soulgazed Morgan you know." The Merlin's smile vanished. "I see that you and him have been doing some very naughty things, some very…traitorous things," I told him, making sure to extend the last few words for an added effect.

The Merlin turned to his side, while keeping a glaring eye on me, and descended around the podium so he was facing me across an empty space. "Touché Dresden, but now you have given away your only bargaining chip. There was very little chance I would bargain with you, but the chance was there all the same," the Merlin tittered to himself. "Now, I have an even greater perseverance to making sure you will never leave this room alive."

As many military tacticians that you have no doubt encountered during your lives will tell you, the worst thing you can do in battle is to face an enemy you know nothing about. While I had known **of **The Merlin throughout most of my life, I had no clue what skills he had in terms of magic. Every wizard has a certain way of using his magic in dire situations. Ramirez was a big fan of water and entropy magic, which allowed him to separate most objects back down to their cellular state. I've seen him throw an energy bolt that completely dissolved a ghoul's head. I myself didn't really have the time to work the finer points in magic. Obviously, I had a certain aptitude for finding things, which is what a private investigator is primarily meant to do, but in battle serves no real purpose unless I manage to drop my staff in the dark and need to find it again. This has actually happened on more than one occasion. Facing an enemy in direct combat though, I liked the not-so-subtle approach of pouring huge amounts of energy into a spell and praying to god that I take someone out in the first hit.

The only news of The Merlin's abilities I'd ever heard though was from a recent attack by the vampires on our ranks. They were being chased through the Nevernever by vampires, ghouls and outsiders and he had managed to create a single shield that could stop all of them. At first, I had been pretty impressed by this notion, but in light of new events, there was a chance that he could have just ordered the vampires to stop following them. If he could slow an outsider to a halt, why couldn't he have just vaporised the army that that were attacking the wizards and they would never have had to retreat into the Nevernever in the first place. It was a set-up. Who would believe that the honoured Merlin would betray us after saving all our lives, ignoring that he didn't even kill a single one of his 'supposed' enemies.

It only just hit me now that Lash was probably gone for good and with her, my ability to summon Hellfire. I'm now going to have to settle for regular fire, which does score high on my moral counter but will lack a noticeable kick that I had grown accustomed to. On a lesser note, I won't be able to understand Latin any more, so I'm going to have a serious disadvantage if the Merlin randomly decides to start blubbering out his secrets in another language in the midst of battle.

Luckily for the speech centre of my brain, but unfortunate for me in general, the time for discussion seemed to be over. Neither of us moved or made a sound, only hearing the vibrations from the gentle fans at the top of the warehouse. It would have been the perfect Mexican stand-off aside from a little less tension, as too avoid a soulgaze, we had both our glares set on the bridges of each others noses. Concentrating slightly, I could feel the wards that coated the walls of this place, thrumming with enough energy to keep out everyone but the strongest intruders. Ebenezer once told me that a while back, a troll had tried to head-butt the wards and knocked itself unconscious.

It would only take one of us to make the first move.

It would only take one hesitation to make the last.

Very slightly, the Merlin adjusted his stance. Taking this as I better sign than any, I threw up my staff and aimed it in the general direction of the Merlin.

_Fuego!_

Billowing clouds of fire shot from my staff and descended towards him. The only noticeable difference I felt between it and Hellfire was that didn't have to suffer the gut wrenching smells of Hellfire now. No longer contained by my will, the orange fireball spread itself across several metres and flew outwards. I saw the Merlin pull up a small smile before turning his body to the side and holding up his hand in a karate-chop position.

Inconspicuously, at some point during our banter, he had slipped on a metal gauntlet, a medieval glove that knights wore to protect their hands but still allow for the flexibility needed in a sword fight. The sparkling surface was so shiny that I could see the distorted reflection of my face upon it.

Though I heard no sound, his mouth moved enough to indicate he was chanting a spell and the air around him shimmers as he built a shield around himself. Rather than stop the fire in its tacks though, my flames hit his shield and equally separated past him, hitting the back wall and scorching the area black, aside from a clean patch positioned directly behind the Merlin. Wasting no time, he changed back to an aggressive stance and flicked his hand directly at me. A loud snap emitted from his hands and the spell began to take form as it crossed the room. Translucent metal began to form in a X shape as it reached me, and I could hear the whooshing sound as the razor sharp points sliced through the air.

Purely on an instinctual level, I dived to my right to try and avoid the spiritual swords and tucked into a roll that would get me back on my feet. As the swords went past, I heard the whooshing sound and a small slice as they cleanly cut through the floor and the edge of my duster, and carried on to neatly decapitate the statue behind me, cutting the head straight off a statue of a Roman Goddess

The head hit the ground almost exactly the same time as me, as I distributed the weight of the fall across my shoulders and stood up straight into a run. With several more snapping sounds, the Merlin through more ghostly swords at me and only my superior fleeing skills allowed me to outmanoeuvre the first set and narrowly dodge the second.

Before allowing him to continue to try and separate my head from its resting place, I carefully aimed (as much as you can do while running) at the Merlin and threw concentrated force at him.

A split second after I shouted _Forzare_, he saw the blow coming and dived forward, rolling under the force that head been heading straight for his neck. I had figured he would try that move though and sure enough, my spell continued on and slammed into the base of a large, metal beam that had been positioned behind him. Warping the edge of the beam and some of the wall behind it, the beam detached from its bolts and groaned in protest as it fell to where the Merlin had fallen.

Hearing the groan, the Merlin quickly flipped onto his back and pointed his fingers upwards. Once again, the swords erupted from his fingers in a large arc and sliced clean through the metal. As the now individual beams clattered noisily next to him, I used this moment of distraction to hurl more fire at him, now in a more concentrated area as his lying down position would preventing him from trying to dodge the attack.

_Fuego!_ At the sound of this, the Merlin tilted his head back with a glare and a snarl to see the upside-down image of Harry Dresden trying to barbecue him. With only the slightest of hesitations, he quickly brought his gloved hand down and slammed it against the tile floor. The laws of physics, with some help from the Merlin's enchantments, proved true and his stiff body flew upwards into the air and over the fire, as it blasted the floor below him and scattered in a wide circle.

While rotating, the Merlin's flight projection sent him straight at a wall about ten meters off the ground, but he easily pushed his legs out and, with inhuman strength, dug his toes straight into the steel wall and held him in a sideways standing position.

Stepping forward, more for a dramatic posture than a useful foot position, I punched in the direction of his highpoint and activated the remainder of my force rings. Stored kinetic energy erupted from my jewellery and pushed away air and anything else in its way. He tensed his muscles and kicked himself away from the wall, flying directly over my head.

As the kinetic energy ripped a hole through the metal wall with a loud crash and kept on going, the Merlin soared out of my field of vision and once more, I heard the snapping sounds. With no time to dodge the attack, I span round to face the general direction of the flying wizard and held out my arm, sending energy into my shield bracelet. The blue-tinted form of my shield barely managed to extend out, as the ethereal forms of a dozen swords hurtled directly towards me an hammered into my defences.

Unlike most of my foes, who were all in favour of physical weapons that my shield had been designed to stop, these swords had been created to cut through just about anything. Instead of the spread pressure that I would usually feel, the razor points slammed into my shield and tried to slice their way through. I only just kept them out, but my arm shook as the sharp metals cast shallow cuts into my hand and wrist. On the edges of my shield where the energy was out its weakest, some of the knives had sliced straight through and had cut deep indentations into the ground around me.

As the sharp pain hit me, the Merlin had reached the end of his glide and landed gracefully onto the shoulders of the decapitated statue. No longer calm and poised, he was coated in a thin layer of sweat and was breathing ruggedly, his long white hair dancing around as his shoulders rose and fell. A subtle check for any injuries brought me to the conclusion that I wasn't in a much better state. The edges of my duster had been shredded and while most of my cuts had sealed, there was a particularly nasty one close to my wrist that had yet to stop bleeding.

At exactly the point where me and the Merlin were about to continue our violent duel, the walls and roof began to creak with an uncomfortable strain. It took me a second to realise that some of the casualties of out fight had been a large section of one of the main walls and the supporting pillar for the corner of the roof. Before I had time to consider the structural ramifications, the ceiling began to collapse around us and the walls began to fold in on themselves. Looking upwards, the Merlin held out his hand, facing downwards and pushed air beneath him. His body immediately flew upwards and he slammed his gloved hand into the ceiling above him, creating an escape hole that he promptly escaped through.

A fallen slab of masonry hit the ground next to me and shattered a wooden bench into kindling. Deciding for once that the Merlin had the right idea, I narrowly dodged another falling missile and extended my hand outwards. _Veniche._

Once I uttered the words, the air around me began to condense, billowing my duster around me. The solid air formed around my feet and my body lifted upwards, through the collapsing building and towards the roof. I had forgotten how much I'd missed flying and this enjoyment almost distracted me from the issue of how to get through the ceiling. Thanks to my keen survival instincts, I eventually noticed the problem. As I was going to fast, there was no time to throw up a force spell, so I show my arm above me and activated my shield. Sparks shot around me as my accelerating forced my way straight through the roof and out into the open air of Chicago.

My body wanted to just rest in my cushion of air and stare out at the evening lights of the city, but my gaze was immediately drawn to the floating figure of a battered and very angry wizard, currently hovering a relatively large distance away from me.

While it is generally an easy spell to keep a grown adult off the ground, it takes up a lot of my magical concentration just to keep myself from spinning around in the air currents. If I had decided to practise it a little more, I could end up doing a whole number of complicated tasks while suspended mid-air. Ah well, no sense looking back at what might have been. I'm just going to have to beat the crap out of Merlin the old fashioned way.

I mentally adjusted my buoyancy and my body tilted in the Merlin's direction. No sooner had I moved though, he held up his palm straight at me and the air crackled around him. Deciding that speed was an essential element here, I put all my will into flying straight at him, while simultaneously charging my bracelet.

As I shot forward, the Merlin smiled and a beam of white hot energy shot out of his hand. Tilting my body sideways, I activated my shield and waited for the last possible moment.

Just as the beam was a few centimetres from my face, I brought my arm over my shoulder and hit the edge of the beam, forcing it to bounce away and straight into the corner edge of an office block, searing a perfect hole straight through the solid concrete. Seeing that his attack failed, the Merlin brought his arm back and pushed forward again in a repeating pattern. Dozens of balls of sizzling energy shot out from him in a way that reminded mush of an artillery gun. Applying pressure here and there, I dodged and weaved my way past the bolts and the ones I couldn't avoid, I deflected off of my bracelet.

I was now hurtling straight for the Merlin and I was too close for him to fire off another spell. With red hate in his eyes, he sent his bare hand into the side of his cloak and I could just the edges of a sword hilt, slowly coming out of a hidden scabbard.

I gripped tightly on the handle of my staff as I approached his position.

Half of the Merlin's sword was now out.

I drew my staff alongside my body, hoping to use my collected momentum to throw him off balance.

Just the tip of the sword was left now.

Just before we both slammed into each other, we brought our weapons out at the same time and the edges of wood and sword slammed together in an almighty scream. Ripples shot through our bodies as two, powerful objects met and refused to back down. Physics was on my side though, as the momentum from my attack, went straight through me and into the Merlin's block. With nothing but air to put on any kind of resistance. The Merlin was pushed backwards several meters, before he built a pocket of air behind him, thick enough to slow him down.

The Merlin's weapon was a similar design to that of the Warden's swords, but had a certain zest about it. I'm guessing that Warden Luccio must have also designed his weapon, but had apparently put more style into it. The blade was the same, but the hilt had been coated in gold and silver colours that sparked when our magical instruments met. When they hit, I could feel the multiple layers of enchantments that the Merlin had cast on his sword over the years and I had no doubt that it would slice straight through me, given the chance. Even my staff sparked in multicoloured lights as the spells on the blade tried to unravel the ones on mine, but unlike the Merlin, I had years of field experience in the modern world, which had taught me to never allow your enemy to destroy your weapon. Sure my blasting rod had been snapped on multiple occasions, but I always kept my staff at its most potent.

As our bodies slowed, I had a brief opportunity to look at the Merlin's face close up. With all of the action in the battle, his hair draped around his shoulders in sweaty clumps and his arms were straining with pressure to hold me back. His teeth were bared and his eyes were staring daggers into my head.

When we finally came to a stop, there was a split second of awkward silence as two arch-rivals suddenly found themselves uncomfortably close to one another, before the Merlin parried away my staff, sending me back a few paces (or whatever the distance is called when your not touching the ground) and lunged for my chest.

No longer limited by two dimensions, I span upwards above him and brought my staff down into his side. I heard a grunt from his mouth as he span around me from the blow, but he quickly regained his composure before pressing back towards me.

He threw his sword left and right at me as my Jedi staff sense kicked in and my arms reacted to his movements, knocking his attacks away from me and tried to get in a few of my own.

I soon noticed a pattern begin to form as he struck his blows around me, and that was that he wasn't going for any killing blows, just the dehabilitating ones that would cut the edges of my arms or chop off my legs. They were pretty serious, but they wouldn't kill me.

Sure enough, he span around my attack and I only just managed to knock him away with my elbow as his blade cut a narrow slice into my side, just below the ribs. As payback though, my hit had struck him right on the nose and sent him reeling away. I brought my hand to my side and felt a damp bit of blood forming below my shirt.

Looking back at the Merlin though, his nose was beginning to drip blood. He wiped the wound with his sleeve and stared at it curiously as if he had never seen his own blood before.

There was little time to rest though, so I straightened back up again and concentrated on the pain. I focused on the spot it was coming from and forced it down into the recesses of my mind so I could no longer feel it. Normally (yeah right), I would worry about the after-effects that would surely hit me later, but now was not the time to think about limitations. If I had hurt the Merlin now, I could do it again.

No sooner had I finished my minor meditation, the Merlin lost interest in his wound and hurtled towards me, while bringing his sword over his head and looking to slice straight down my spine. Automatically reacting to his movement, I brought my staff up with both hands just as his blade struck down. As soon as our weapons met though, I realised that he had led me into a trap. When he attacked my staff, I only felt maybe a half of the energy that he normally put into his offence. The reason behind this was because only one hand held onto his sword while his metal gauntlet was sent straight towards my belly.

With no time to defend myself, his punch struck straight into my stomach and I was sent hurtling backwards. The momentum behind a train had been put behind the blow and I think it was only the edge of my duster that had stopped my intestines from exploding outwards.

No longer controlling my flight, my trajectory began to slope steeply downwards towards the ground. I knew that I was supposed to do something about it, but my mind was disorientated and I was still trying to figure out why hitting the ground would be a bad thing.

With just enough time to spare though, I forced my thoughts to the surface and drew up a defensive shield around me, that would spread around the kinetic forces that I would normally feel after hitting the ground from nearly ten stories up.

I dimly saw flashing lights and heard someone shouting, before my body slammed directly into the hood of a police car. While I didn't feel any of the effects, the car didn't fare much better. The force of my drop crumpled the hood to around half of its original height and the back wheels actually lifted of the ground for several feet.

There was a moment of silence, before the car tilted backwards again and groaned as it thudded back into the ground.

"_Harry?"_

The sound of my name jolted me to my senses again, so I let down my shield and jumped off of the car wreck that will never again be used for transportation.

Quickly looking around, I spotted some distinct changes to the outside of the warehouse. The first was a whole army of police officers with most of their guns drawn. Some were aiming there guns in the sky while staring at me, others were questioning some very worried looking apprentices while staring at me and the rest were aiming the guns at me…while staring at me.

I followed the line of fire that the first set of police were aiming at and spotted a flying figure way up in the sky. Hells Bells, was that how high I was? I couldn't make out his expression, but I doubt his was happy about seeing me get up again and his emotion showed clearly when the air crackled around him once again and I saw a sparkle as he shot pure energy at me. The white of beam glowed and lit up the area around me. The beam began to spread out as it headed downwards coating a large enough area to take out me and the innocents around me.

I glanced downwards at the figure who had called my name. Standing at the closest line to the Merlin was Karrin, no longer aiming her gun upwards but now standing straight and looking at me with confused eyes.

There was no time for semantics though, the energy from the Merlin had piled on top of itself and was cutting away the edges of the buildings around it.

I took off into a sprint and ran straight for Karrin, bringing as mush power into me from my environment as possible.

The area was glowing brightly now.

I would only get one shot at this.

The beam was almost upon us.

I reached Karrin just as the energy engulfed us. Spinning her into my arms, I held her close and drew up my hand to face the vortex of power.

Magic is all about willpower. The spell or ritual needs the castor to believe in it, shape it and control it for it to be cast. Reflectively, someone with a greater will could come along and over power the castor.

Holding Karrin in my arm, I felt energy flow from her and into me. I knew she was scared and confused, but those emotions were overpowered by her trust in me. This trust gave me the strength I needed to even attempt what I was about to try.

Focusing on the power that was about to burn us to ashes, I thought about the innocent bystanders around us, what the Merlin might to Molly and what would happen to Karrin without me to protect her.

I stared down the beam, **"Forzare!" **I yelled.

The pure energy slammed into my will. Blue wall met white tsunami and there was a tremendous explosion as the two forces met and the violent reaction practically screamed at me in frustration. Bright sparks the size of footballs shot out of my shield and fell to the ground around us. I moved a bit and one hit my cheek, sending a flash of pain through my face as it burned the skin.

I wasn't about to become distracted though. All my attention was focused on preventing anything from crossing the barrier. Gusts of winds were blown past me as my shield bent and curved under the sheer weight of the matter pressing against it.

As the energy reached its high point, my barrier began to strain and buckle. I pressed more strength into it to spread the pressure around, but this resulted in a perfectly balanced force. My feet began to slide backwards over the gravelled path of the lot, as the distance between me and the face of the burining magic decreased.

Straining my muscles, it took all my effort just to hold it back once more as it closed in, only an inch or so away from the palm of my hand. Heat was singeing away the edges of my fingernails and the static friction between the forces currently in play interfered with the nerves in my arm and I began to shake.

Under my shoulder, Karrin's grip tightened around my waist as she stared it the great abyss of light. If my defences failed, she would be gone in a moment, not even feeling a thing. I almost stopped feeling negative about the whole thing, until I heard a quiet whimper escape her lips.

Karrin had a very similar ideology to me when it came to fear. We both believed that you fight your fears with knowledge of the fear and especially how to counter it. Karrin knew about the fast energy in front of us. She knew that it came from the souls of Magical creatures and can prevent death, as well as start it.

What she also knew though, was that she could never beat this fear. Nothing in her vast arsenal of knowledge and weapons would make any kind of difference when faced with this. She could only turn to her friend for the protection she could not give herself.

With new perseverance, I faced down the heart of the beam. White light flowed through my arm and shot into the shield. The flare blinded everyone around me, but I forced my vision through the sea of light and took affirmative control of the situation.

As much as it pained me, I brought up my other hand from around Karrin's body and held it out, palm facing upwards. Concentrating, I pictured the base of the attack, just a few millimetres above the ground in front of my barrier. Lifting my hand up suddenly, I put power into the air around me and pushed upwards against gravity.

The pressure suddenly faded from my shield, and I almost fell over if it weren't for Karrin's tight grip. Upon receiving new orders, the bright beam of energy shot straight up into the air and kept going, flying past the reflective windows of the tower blocks, through the thick clouds that marked the approach of rain and didn't stop. I pity the poor alien who gets hit by that.

With nothing left to focus my energy on, I fell to my knees and stared at the ground. My body was shaking head to toe as the adrenaline rush faded and my body fought to keep up with my rapidly beating heart.

A small shadow descended over me and warm hands grasped my shoulders, forcing me to look up. Karrin's face was directly in front of mine as she yelled at my face.

"_Harry!_ … Harry! Are you still with me?"

My body relaxed and my shaking stopped as I looked into Karrin's eyes. _Though the world felt right again, I knew there was something I was forgetting…_

"God dammit Harry, speak up."

_Something important…_

"Harry, are…" her words froze in her mouth as she looked at the shocked expression on my face.

Grabbing her arms, I threw her to my side as a bolt of lightning shot through the space where'd she's been sitting and hit me straight in my chest.

My body and my mouth screamed in pain as the electricity travelled across my body. I lost control over myself as my limbs began involuntarily shaking. Bruises and cuts I can take, but this was hitting every nerve in my body, shouting millions of orders directly into my brain, saying that I was under attack as it ripped through me, over and over again.

At some point, my eyes had squeezed shut, as I felt my knees leave the ground and my body began to rise into the air. Every now and then, my mind would make a sensible thought, before getting overlapped by mental screaming. I was only just barely aware of the world around me.

Someone called my name again, the sound slapping into my eardrums. I heard it but I didn't know the relevance of it.

Across my skin, I felt random ripples of air, rapidly rushing past me as I was lifted higher and higher.

Opening my eyes for a split second, I saw the source of my anguish. Bolts of electricity were shooting down the Merlin's arm and channelling through the air and directly into me. His other hand was controlling the lightning itself, forcing the power to lift me through the air and towards him.

As I passed close to his face, the pain suddenly disappeared from my own. The suffering in the rest of my body was still there, but I could just about open my eyes and force my senses to work. I smelt burning flesh.

"You are an insubordinate little shit Dresden!" Froth was now foaming from his mouth. "You will die. Your friends will die. Everyone who even had a good thought about you will burn in anguish and torment!""

I spat in his eye.

Roaring in outrage, the Merlin removed my heads' temporary invulnerability to his electricity and the shooting pains returned. Lifting his arms up, he brought my jittering body above him and poured energy into his arms. The extra juice of lightning forced my body up into the air, flying past the tower blocks and reaching just the edges of the dark rain-clouds that had already formed in the open air.

I couldn't move. I couldn't think properly. Just like that moment over a decade ago, he had me in his grasp and this time, wasn't going to let me go that easily.

Forcing my eyelids open, I eventually got my neck muscles to turn my head downwards, to face the Merlin below me. His eyes showed satisfaction and his arms were evidently feeling the same way.

A whizzing sound suddenly caught my attention as hails of bullets slammed into his back. The back covered by the enchanted cloak of a Council member. The bullets did little in the way of damage, but they sure as hell annoyed him after distracting him from the death of his prey. Flicking his gloved hand, he sent a thick ball of fire straight downwards at the source of the bullets and I very faintly, saw a small explosion.

There had to be a way out of this, but I couldn't think up any decent strategy plans as the Merlin burned away my skin. The fight my body was putting up with the attack was using all of my reserves. My resistance was killing me.

So instead of keeping the lightning out...I took it in.

I gasped as the massive flow of power went straight into my soul. Spare energy sparked around my body and flowed out my pores. With a new power reserve, the wounds across my arms and in my side began to furiously knit back together again and blood was pulled back into my veins.

Like dropping a toaster into a bathtub, the Merlin immediately short-circuited. His power had suddenly all been drained and the massive output had singed away a part of his arm.

The human body was never meant to contain that much power. I've seen wizards drew energy from the forces around them, but they will always expel it again in one form or another. Even with most of my concentration, sparks were flying around me as they fought to be used. The air around Chicago became electrified and anything with a circuit board suddenly failed. Glancing around me, the city light of Chicago had began to go out one by one and soon, only the area around me was lit up.

Puzzled, I looked down at my hands and arms. The power I was holding in was freely moving under my skin and as such, I was a glowing orb in the heart of a dark city.

All this power though, had not wavered the Merlin one slightest. Even with a large portion of his magic gone, or at least large compared to my standards, he still projected confidence that he could still kill me in a second and as such, began to move carefully upwards towards me.

To test the waters a little, I aimed the tip of my hand in his direction and carefully relaxed some of my concentration. Mega-volts of energy flew straight out and were sent towards the closest, possible conductor. Without hesitating, the Merlin held out his gloved hand, carefully holding the burned one under his cloak and voluntarily connected it to my lightning bolt. He winced slightly as the energy condensed around his hand and began to dissipate. The Merlin had been around for Centuries, maybe more. Would hope did I have of killing him.

The realisation of this only just hit me. I couldn't kill him with my own power, but I could kill him with his.

Before he had a chance to react, I forced the air above me to push me down and I hurtled towards him.

Just as he drew up his arm for another attack, our bodies slammed together and threw us into gravity's mercy.

I don't know where he got it from, but he pulled something sharp from a hidden pocket and stabbed it straight into my belly. I screamed more from frustration than pain and proceeded to punch him in the face until he dropped the knife. We were speeding downwards so fast though, that as soon as his grip slackened, the knife flew into the air above us. With wind pounding our bodies, I continued to push down with the air, increasing our speed and momentum.

Just as we reached the same height as the office blocks, I grabbed the Merlin's shoulder with one hand and held my other around us in a tight hold. My bracelet activated and a luminescent bubble of shielding circled around us.

The Merlin's free hand shot out from under him and the sizzled flesh grasped around my neck. "Dresden," he screamed, "We won't stop hunting you. If it takes to the end of time, my order will scatter your ashes into hell!"

When I refused to answer and concentrated on my plan, the Merlin's body tingled for a slight moment before the ghostly blades shot out of him once more. With the wear of battle, they no longer had their unnatural sharpness, but they still cut into my sides and arms and blood began to pour from my wounds.

I couldn't afford to get distracted though. Channelling more power into my shields cut out the sound of wind from the area around us. All I could hear was me and the Merlin's heavy breathing as we plummeted to the earth.

We were now just above the roof of the collapsed warehouse...

My barrier grew brighter...

We shot into the building...

I saw Karrin's face through an area which had once been a wall...

Only a meter or so to go now...

I briefly wondered if this was going to hurt...

Just as we hit the ground, I relaxed my hold on the vast energy I had held together...

The power of a thousand explosions was released as a ball of blue energy. Combined with the energy from the drop, it multiplied quickly and filled the space between the shield in no time at all.

With the sudden pressure, the barrier expanded to accommodate the rush and filled the size of the warehouse. Metal and wood and stone were destroyed in an instant, after either being flattened by the shield or evaporated inside it.

The shockwave from the force spread out through the barrier and into the environment around it. Every window in the surrounding buildings flexed and shattered with an explosive roar as the force was knocked against it. Cars too close to the rush of air were tipped over and those that weren't were pushed back against the screeching protest of the tyres.

Upon sight of the fiery power, every cop in the area once again took shelter behind cars and scenery, dragging civilians and apprentices down with them. Murphy herself quickly rolled behind her squad car and held a riot shield above her head as the glass slammed down into it.

As the energy wave expanded, it rushed towards Murphy's car. With violent winds blowing viciously around, she couldn't move anywhere. Before the burning heat reached her though, the blue shield solidified and held the explosion back. Like piranhas, bolts of lightning swam beneath it, eager to continue outwards and eviscerate the environment but still the shield held.

After agonizing minutes of roaring flames and screaming winds, the fire lost its energy and began to dissipate. Upon sensing this, the shield lost its glowing aura and faded away. A bright white light shot out as its hold was released and blinded the area. There was no sound, just a sea of light that reflected off even the most callous of surfaces. Using up its power, the lights went down and Karrin was left in darkness.

* * *

**Next Chapter: **What Remained

**P.S.** I enjoyed writing the fight scene, but I appear to have a limited vocabulary. I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone could offer some words other than "power", "energy" and "beam", but still mean the same thing.

**Recommended Song: **Pretty Green Eyes by Ultrabeat


	5. What Remained

What Remained

* * *

**Characters:** Murphy, Dresden, The Merlin, The guys from SI  
**Author's notes:** This won't advance the timeline but it helps to get settled into Murphy's point-of-view for the next chapter

* * *

**Written in Murphy's POV**

* * *

There were a few specific things in my life that I used to relax me in order to prevent myself from losing my nerve in the middle of a shoot-out or the equivalent of having to do paperwork. Every cop in my department had their own little habits that helped us to forget the troubles of the worse parts of humanities actions and give us a little time to ourselves.

For example, I knew a certain partner of mine had a taste for flower arranging. He hadn't admitted it to anyone, but whenever one of us walked past his cubicle, there was always a small, neat flower box sitting on the edge of the desk connected to the partition. Lately, there had also been talk around the water cooler (or just water for us as the cooling system had broke down a month ago), that the new kid in the unit was a well known patron in some of the same-sex bars. He was well known because he had the unique ability of being able to completely abandon the use of alcohol and manage to bring home the real lookers who were there that night. Being the MAN'S club that SI still was, none of the guys admitted to being in a gay bar to start the rumour in the first place.

For me, I found that there was a certain level of calm that washed over me when I was doing a generally considered violent task in a controlled environment. For a large portion of my life, that has been my Aikido, which I had been training in since I was but a child. From the outside, I understood that it looked very violent and life-threatening, but when it is just you and your opponent facing off against one another, it feels as though there is nothing else in the world that matters. Everything but the floor you're standing on is just space that's currently not occupied by your opponents attacks.

If I ever found myself lacking a training ring and a minimum of one enemy, I would usually dig out some of my father's old weapons and clean them. In the old days of law enforcement, guns hadn't been made at a very high quality and therefore had to be cleaned on a regular basis. It would require you to take apart the gun a separate it across a table while using a special cleaning kit (made mostly of boot polish and a sponge on a stick of wire).

The latter task had led me to taking apart an old 44. Revolver that I had borrowed from Dresden and had yet to give back. Since the idiot thought that guns had been designed to work all of the time no matter how much pressure (magical or otherwise) you excerpt on it, so when I could, I would usually take the time to clean his after he guilt tripped me into doing it from admitting that leaving gun cleaning to him would mean it would most likely blow up in his hands in the middle of a, and I quote, "epic duel" with one of his enemies of the week.

I sat on my couch and glared at the dismantled weapon. From the guns point of view, I probably wasn't that threatening. After the events at Arctis-Tor when me and Dresden successfully killed the bad guy and rescued the kid, I had barely enough time to get home and have a quick shower before hastily throwing on my uniform and preparing myself for a no doubt long and arduous conversation with my superiors on why I had been missing from an active investigation for over a day.

I couldn't help the pang of worry that rippled through me. This was going to be bad. Best case scenario, I would lose my position and be demoted back to a rookie role at SI, with no hope of a promotion again. I wanted to blame Dresden and his stupid Council, but in no way was it his fault. I had to practically beat the shit out of him before he would let me go with him and I didn't regret it one bit. True, I didn't regret the battering, but it was my job to protect civilians of Chicago and Molly Carpenter fell into those borders.

While I would have much preferred to continue to brood on my poor unfair life, a sharp stab of pain suddenly shot through me. It didn't feel like pressure had been put on me, more like a sudden weight had been lifted off my skin, like I had been underwater the whole time and only decided now to break the surface. My hand clutched at my stomach desperately until the pain retreated back into a rapid throbbing.

I thought that standing up might help a little, but as my body lifted, it felt as though I had been sitting on Velcro, as my skin seemed to peel away from where I had been sitting. Putting effort into standing up, the sticky feeling suddenly gave way and I stumbled forward slightly.

Seeing that my kneecaps were about to hit the table, I prepared to hold out my hands a brace for a fall but my legs had continued to move forward and had righted themselves. Looking down, it looked as though the table had sliced clean through my legs and obscured the view of my feet.

Curious as to the lack of pain though, I sent instructions to my feet to wiggle my toes and sure enough, I felt them move and push themselves against the fabric in my shoes. I lifted my leg up and regretted it immediately as the lower part of my leg glided through the table and my foot came into view. It had an unnatural, white glow to it and, following up my leg, I discovered that the rest of me was emanating light too.

Now, even though I am not the kind of person who panics, I dare anyone to go through the experience I was going through right now and not feel their heart beat that little bit faster and their muscles become tense. Long ago, I had decided that the best defence was a good offence, so I hastily reached down to the scattered parts of the revolver in order to assemble them again. I could build a gun pretty quickly.

Where the grip and the trigger and the other miscellaneous pieces should have been though, were the scattered remnants of a sword. It had been broken into individual pieces, but there was no doubt it was a large, glowing long sword, sitting across my coffee table.

From my basic instincts, I tensed up my arms and began to carefully back away towards my kitchen, scanning the rest of the living room along the way for signs of an intruder. Most of the objects around me were glowing now, especially my Katana's sitting above my fire place that were very close to dripping sparks onto my floor.

As I continued to back away, where I should have passed easily through an archway, I instead hit a tall figure, slightly cushioned by a thick coat or shirt of some kind.

Also from instinct, I took up my arms and spun round, jumping back slightly to get more space between me and the intruder.

In front of me was a tall, willowy man, maybe in his twenties or thirties. A long thick duster was supported over him and his dark brown hair was cut short, billowing slightly over his eyebrows. Like me and most of my house, he was emitting an unnatural glow but the colours involved were mixed. His face and body were giving off strong white lights that I felt should have been blinding me. Across his arms though was a grey tinge that looked like it had stained him and though I couldn't quite focus on it, there looked to be a large black shape hovering around his ear, strands of black claws digging into the man's shoulder like it was holding onto the man's very being.

It took me a second to get my bearings, but eventually my brain kick started and the memories of Dresden flowed in, as I noticed his tensed up figure and a worried smile across his face. I pictured the many smiles of Harry Dresden and couldn't help showing my own when I noticed that he wasn't looking particularity worried and decided that there would be no immediate danger in the next few minutes.

Still so many unexplained questions though. Questions that a mere person like me couldn't understand but Dresden could explain in two sentences or less, partly due to his knowledge on the weird but mostly due to a limited vocabulary. I put the most important ones in order. "Dresden," I asked him, "Why, the hell, am I glowing, what, the hell, happened to my gun and why, the hell, are you glowing?"

Rather than immediately answer my questions, his face stuttered and looked at me with confusion. Instead off letting him try and defend himself with a pathetic excuse and a wave of his hand, I continued on the attack. "I swear to God Dresden, whenever you're around, something bad just has to happen, whether it be electronics, the stability of buildings or even reality itself."

Now on the attack, I felt in my game. I had always felt better when I was in control of the situation, maybe not literally but he certainly wasn't winning this argument and I wasn't going to let him.

With a silent reply once again, I prepared another speech, preferably one with as many swear words as possible. "And now you turn me into a ghost. Of all the…" I didn't get the last part of it out as Harry suddenly leaned in closer to me, wrapped his strong arms around my back and pulled me into a kiss

Before my mind had a chance to figure out what was going on, my body began to pull away and my neck tilted backwards as it reacted to the false impression that I was either under attack or my current lip lock was a devious trap. A lovely, devious trap. My thoughts were running in circles.

_Is he kissing me? _

_Should I kiss him? _

_Do I want to kiss him? _

_Am I still glowing?_

My one answer to these was the bright neon word of yes. Taking control of myself, I gratefully accepted his mouth and he accepted mine. My eyes closed and I focused on the wonderful feeling of him in my arms. I unclenched my fists and brought my arms around his neck, dragging his head down to my level more so my lips could get a better hold on his. Wanting to get more of a feel on him, I ran my hands through his hair, caressing his head and neck. In response, his hands began to move around on my back and touched with the pressure of a feather, all the right places. A quiet moan escaped from my lips and he inhaled them with happiness. I've had good kisses in the past sure. Ones that seemed to last for hours, but with Harry, time just didn't seem important. All there was, was the heat of the moment as I pulled him in closer to me, never wanting to let him go.

After who-the-hell-knows-how-long, I felt his body hesitate around me as the kiss (and some minor fondling) drew to a close. I broke the kiss off at the same time as him and he rested his head on mine. My heart had been beating a mile a minute and I panted as I drew oxygen back into my lungs. I looked up at him, "You know Harry, you could have come over to see me rather than evicting me from my body." He smiled his goofy grin back, in response.

"But I wouldn't be me if I went for the simplest answer. The more effort you put into it, the greater the sense of satisfaction and plus, it's only polite to put a bit of thought into wooing a lady such as yourself."

I smiled and gently punched his chest. "You chauvinistic pig, as dead impressed as I am though," I looked into his eyes, "I'd rather you put me back into my body so we can start on some more familiar ground".

He grinned and looked up slightly in thought and his lips cheekily smiled. His eyes though, didn't match as they were filled with worry and fear. Something was wrong, so I unlocked my arms from around his neck and stroked his arms in comfort. He answered me while looking down at his feet. "Karrin, I … There may be a chance that … that I won't be coming back."

He had genuine fear in his voice and now refused to meet my eyes. I grabbed onto his arms tightly and forced him to look at me with my voice. "Harry? What do you mean? Why won't you be coming back?"

Small tears glistened down his cheek and I stroked them away with my hands, holding his head to look at my gaze, "Talk to me Harry. Maybe I can help…" he shook his head and looked back down at his feet again.

"I'm sorry Karrin. I want to be here with you, talk to you, touch you, but someone still needs my help." He forced a smile onto his face and looked deep into my eyes, "Goodbye Karrin Murphy, and I'm so sorry."

He leaned forward again to kiss me and I automatically leaned into him again. As wonderful as it felt, he didn't answer my question. Pulling away from me, his eyes glazed over and his glow, along with him, began to fade. The skin around me began to tighten and I felt the familiar pressure of reality as my view suddenly switched from that of a fading Harry to his dismantled gun resting on a table in front of me.

As I tried to figure out what was going on, my phone began to ring which sent my senses back under control. I rapidly span around to face my kitchen where I could just see the outline of Harry's figure. "Harry? What do you mean?" I asked him, but he was already gone, leaving me none the wiser. I lacked answers but I had memories. My fingers brushed against my lips.

Running on automatic, my other hand reached out and picked up the phone, answering it as I brought it to my ear. "Murphy here."

There was a click from the other end of the line as her call was switched from the dialling machine to the caller. I did not want to deal with SI right now, but it was a problem I couldn't avoid and would have to deal with sooner.

"Murphy, we've received a call about some odd goings on in the warehouse district, North of Chicago. We're sending dispatch to check it out."

Well, at least it wasn't a bollocking. "Understood, I'll be there in five." I cut the call and rubbed at my eyes. Where there was odd goings on, there was Harry. I put the revolver back together and searched for my police siren.

* * *

Only after I drove off, did I realise that I had just said I would get across town in five minutes. I had to skip a few red lights and took a few turnings at unsafe speeds but sure enough, warehouses began to show around me with at least a few seconds to spare. I couldn't afford to be late at the moment. I was in enough trouble.

As I drove on, I eventually spotted a few police cruisers parked outside a large, black building, surrounded on both sides by large tower blocks. As the report of odd goings on was sent through the departments, it was quickly passed down to Special Investigations and as such, most of the guys from SI were around.

A few were leaning on their cars, but the rest had closely surrounded a group of young people, probably no older than teenagers. Thick, brown cloaks covered most of them and they had herded themselves into a flock of frightened kids. They had all been cuffed already, but a few had separated themselves from the crowd and were arguing with the police. I parked my car in front of the building, got out and walked over to them, barely catching the edges of their conversation.

"You have to all get away from here now, you're not meant to be here!" A large, black haired youth shouted.

Two cops stood in front of him and did not look amused. "Sir, if you would calm down, you can explain what the problem is."

"No, you don't understand," the kid calmed down and hung his head, "We can't tell you but we all have to go now!"

Before I reached them and had a chance to intervene, there was a loud explosion as an entire wall of the warehouse behind me suddenly shot outwards and slammed into the building next to it. The kids ducked their heads down and huddled close together, while me and every cop there, rolled behind cover and took aim at the building. There was silence inside for a moment, but soon the whole building began to tremble and groan in frustration. Ripples spread across the walls as they tried to hold each other up but failed miserably.

I heard a sharp crack from the roof and cursed myself for not having a higher position. A small object shot into my field of view as it flew up into the air. Looking closer, I saw it was a tall, old man, flying up and hovering in mid-air. Yes, definitely magic.

We all aimed our guns at the figure and wondered what the hell we were meant to do at this point. Matters kept getting complicated though, when I heard someone shout from inside the building as the black walls tumbled inwards on themselves. There was another cracking sound from the roof and a second figure flew up to the first. I recognized him as his dark duster flapped around his body and his hair flew up around him.

Harry eventually settled his accent and the two figures looked across the air at each other. Harry had once told me that the magical community strived to not show itself in public, but those rules had been thrown out of the book now. They were around ten-storeys up, but I knew the lay of the land well and that position would be visible to just about every part of the city.

Also recognizing Harry, the cops around me turned in my direction as a signal that they wanted my opinion on what to do now. I was already beginning to tell them to shoot at the first figure, but before my mouth could open, Harry suddenly shot through mid-air towards the man. In response, the man held up his hand and a bright light shot towards Harry. Before it hit though, a blue shield suddenly formed around Harry arms and he knocked it away. No sooner had that happened, dozens of beams suddenly shot towards Harry and I grabbed tightly onto my gun as his body dodged its way through the oncoming fire and knocked away what was left.

They both slammed into each other and Harry's staff met with a sword the man had seemingly produced from nowhere. There was an agonizing pause before they both began to furiously chop and hit each other.

Seeing this might get ugly pretty soon, I turned to the cops and began to yell out orders. I managed to have about half of them stay and take aim while the rest grabbed the frightful kids and dragged them away to find cover. While my back was turned though, I heard a yell of pain from Harry. I span round to see what had happened, but he had already began to fall downwards, away from the figure.

Knots formed in my stomach as he hurtled towards the car park behind me and my mind tried to form crazy plans that would save him. When he reached about halfway though, the same blue shield spluttered to life around him and formed a solid barrier.

His now armoured body shot over my head and slammed into the bonnet of a patrol car behind me. The force was so great that the back of the car flew up into the air, before slamming down again with a thud. I took a few steps towards him and yelled his name. "Harry?"

Harry was curled in a foetus position on the crumpled bonnet, but either the sound of his name or the sound of my voice jolted him awake and the blue dome collapsed around him. Without the slightest inclining of pain or even discomfort, he jumped down off the car and glanced around him, his gaze lingering for a short while on the group of kids.

He then looked above my head at the figure in the sky and his eyes widened in shock. He looked down at me with fearful eyes and I still didn't understand what was going on. Before I could call for him again, he took off at a dead sprint straight towards me and I noticed the ground and walls around us begin to light up.

I thought he was going to tackle me to the ground, but his arm instead grabbed onto me and drew me in to his body while lifting his other arm to the sky. As I turned, I realised what he had been worried about. Covering the air around us was white hot energy, covering an area greater than the estate we were standing on. Though I couldn't touch it, I felt the air crackle around me as the excess magic electrified the air around us.

I was too frightened to move. All I could to was hold on tightly to Harry's arm and hope that he would be able to save us from this. His entire body tensed as a mask of concentration developed on his face and he drew in one large gulp of air.

"**Forzare!"**

The power of the word was so great that it hurt my eardrums. The words spread themselves around us like the many echoes in a cave formed a wall in front of us. The white fire slammed into the shied and both screamed out in protest as power thundered through them. Bright blue sparks shot out of the shield and flew around us, as Harry pulled me to the right slightly and a spark flew past my head and burned a line down his cheek.

Powerful gusts of wind shot around us and threatened to knock us over, but Harry stayed standing as the wind ripped past us and billowed out Harry's duster. Traces of litter were spinning wildly around in miniature cyclones and I had to shield my eyes into Harry's chest to avoid getting blinded by the tiny missiles. I looked up at Harry's face as he seemed unconcerned for his eye health. He just kept that same, determined face against the elements and he didn't dare blink.

I could still feel through Harry's grip though, the tremendous force that he was holding back. His feet began to slide backwards over the ground as the energy pressed against us. He wasn't just protecting me, but the people around us. Most of the cops had hidden behind their cars, but some were still aiming at the immense scale of power in front of them, their gun aims shaking as they tried to decide if they should fire or not or whether it would even make a difference if they did.

I looked back at the fire and it had begun to close in on us, the tip of it merely inches away from Harry's hand. Small trails of smoke formed on the edges of his fingers as they singed away his flesh but he still stood strong. Sensing he was struggling to hold on and that we may only be moments away from death, I held onto his waist and buried my head into his chest.

I wasn't going anywhere, and as the walls closed in, I let out a small whimper.

At the sound of my voice, every bone in Harry's body suddenly thrummed with power and the wall of energy stopped in it tracks. Harry's skin began to glow like it had back at my place and a white light shot out of his hand, so bright that I had to close my eyes and look away.

The heat from the flames seemed to evaporate from the air around us and was replaced with a cool breeze. Harry's arm lifted from my shoulders as he brought it out before him, but I refused to relinquish my hold on Harry. His arms made an aggressive motion upwards and the pressure in the air around us suddenly disappeared. Harry almost fell over but I supported him with my shoulders as I looked back.

All of the tremendous energy had suddenly disappeared. I looked up at the sky and a great ball of fire was shooting up past the clouds and into the distance. Before I had time to react, Harry suddenly fell to the ground, twisting out of my grip and hanging his head.

I stood in front of him and grabbed his shoulders, dragging his gaze back up to meet mine. "Harry? … Harry! Are you still with me?"

His body stopped shaking in my grasp as he recognized me and looked into my eyes. There was no denying though that he was furiously thinking about something. What was he worried about? "God dammit Harry, speak up."

He still lay there with a blank expression on his face. Maybe he had hurt himself, or suffered from brain damage. I wouldn't be able to tell unless he starts talking again so I tried once more.

"Harry, are…" the words froze in my mouth. His face had rapidly changed from that of a confused, weak man to the frightened, strong gaze of a wizard. Before I had a chance to ask anything else, he suddenly grabbed my shoulders and threw me to the side. My brain just registered what happened as a beam of electricity shot past my head and straight into Harry. I cried out as I hit the ground, but those cries were quickly overshadowed by the screams of pain coming from Harry.

Looking up, my stomach did a u-turn as I took in the sight before me. Harry was still kneeling on the ground, but electricity was pouring into his body, causing his limbs to flail wildly around. Bolts of lightening shot through his arms and legs, tearing him apart from the inside but doing nothing to silence his protests.

I tried to make a grab for him, but a stab of electricity shot through me when I tried to grab his arm and sent me flying back into a squad car. Before I could get up and try again, his body rose from the ground and began to soar upwards.

"Harry!" I cried out, but I don't think he heard me. He just kept yelling out that basic scream that every living thing will do when under an immense pain that it cannot silence.

As he flew threw the air, I began to panic and followed the line of wear the lightning was coming from. Up above me, the bolts of power were shooting from the figures arms directly into Harry. I could do nothing to help as the man brought Harry close to him and yelled at his face.

Harry spat into his eye.

Roaring in outrage, the figure performed a strange movement with his arms that sent Harry shooting towards the clouds above. I looked around at the shocked faces around me and decided it was time we acted. I had to raise my voice to cut across Harry's screams.

"Everybody here with a gun," I barked at the cops around me. Now being given orders, they suddenly straightened themselves as our law enforcing instincts kicked in. "I want you to all shoot at that attacker!" They looked very confused and I sighed to myself. "I want you to shoot at the man with lightning coming from his hands and take him down." I expected a moment of hesitation from them but they all obeyed my orders and lined up into a firing stance. We were a pack at SI and I (for now) was the leader.

With simultaneous roars, bullets were fired from our guns and were sent straight at the figure. Though he was very high up, we had all practised many hours of gun training and, while a few missed, most slammed into his back and startled him. I had hope that we would kill him, but his face turned towards us and flicked his hand. From him, a large fireball came shooting out and rushed to our position.

Without needing to be told, we all dived behind cover as the fire slammed into the exact spot were I had been standing and exploded, sending fire billowing out around it. My back was scorched slightly as some of the flames hit my shirt when I dived for the car but under its protection, the flames flew right past us.

I glanced around to check for injuries and for the most part, we were OK except for one guy who was frantically stripping off his uniform as the sleeve had caught fire.

I looked over at the kids in cloaks and they were unharmed as well. They hadn't his behind cover, but a few had stood out in front of their cowering peers and had projected a shield similar to Harry's around the group. One of the older boys caught my eyes and nodded to me, signifying that he and his peers were all right.

I had failed Harry. The only hope I could have offered him was the use of bullets, but without the death threat that normally loomed over our weapons, the evil figure simply ignored us and turned back to torturing Harry.

I didn't want to look, but I forced myself to keep looking up at the one sided battle, far above the streets of Chicago. Little by little, I saw the life going out of Harry as his movements became sluggish and his throat grew course from yelling.

Out of all the people in my life, I trusted Harry the most. I liked his cocky smile he gave after making yet another mistake. I admired how after he had taken suffering from the nightmares of the world, he would always get back up the next day and fight the same enemies once more. What I most wanted though, was the chance to feel his lips against mine once more and his arms to embrace me like he could protect me from anything the world had to offer.

I blinked as a tear went down my left cheek.

There was a sudden change in the atmosphere around me as the screams from Harry suddenly stopped though. It didn't feel like he had drooled out the words as his death took hold. More like he suddenly found himself without an attack to scream about. I just caught the edges of his outcry's as they took on a confused tone.

Focusing on Harry again, the air had began to spark and crackle around him, the energy rapidly spreading out in a wave around him as it emanated through me and onto the streets of Chicago. As the power rippled through my skin, my muscles twitched and shook for a second, like you would automatically do if suddenly hit by a chilly wind.

While me and the people around me quickly shook off the feeling, our electronics didn't far much better. One by one, radios and street lights and phones and house lights sparked quickly and died from the exposure to the energy field. I looked behind me and was stunned as I watched the electric lights around us die and let a tide of darkness sweep through the area.

It would have been pitch black if not for a faint, blue glow like the one from Harry's shield bracelet. I looked back up again at a glowing object in the sky and it took me the time for my eyes to focus to realise that it was Harry. He was still freely floating in the air, but rivers of energy were dancing across his skin while he studied his hands with a confusion that I was also feeling.

He held his arm out and a fork of lightning darted from him and into his torturer. The man just held up his own hand and met the electricity as it absorbed into him and dissipated.

Nodding as if expecting the reaction, Harry but on a serious game face which usually meant he was about to do something stupid.

I cried out his name as he suddenly angled his body and shot downwards towards the other man.

My fingers tightened on my gun as I could only watch Harry Dresden slam into the man and hurtle downwards towards the unforgiving concrete ground of Chicago.

* * *

**Next Chapter:** Final Thoughts (You won't be disappointed!)


	6. Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

* * *

**Characters:** Many, but the main ones are Murphy, Dresden, Ramirez, Luccio, Lily  
**Author's notes:** Contains a cliffhanger. Nobody likes them too much but they make very good dramatic endings.

* * *

**Written in Murphy's POV … for the most part …**

* * *

My thoughts made furious attacks at one another as I tried to process the sight of Harry intentionally driving himself and his attacker towards the ground.

I watched them struggle intensely against one another as they traded blows between one another. Harry's voice flew through the air as he took a nasty blow in the gut and blood poured from the wound.

He grabbed the other man in a bear hug and activated the same shield he had used countless times to save others and the blue orb circled around him and the man.

As they plummeted down, he began to glow brighter than I had ever seen him before. Shafts of light bounced off every surface within a hundred yards and the area around us lighted up more than a street lamp could ever hope to do.

My gaze followed his drop as he disappeared behind the walls of the crumbled warehouse, only to reappear a split second later behind a wall. Though it was short, in that brief time, our eyes locked and the world became still as I understood what he was doing. His eyes held that same look of duty that I remembered him showing years ago during a loup-garou scare. He was trying to take down a werewolf behind me as I tried to protect him from an enemy behind him. He thought I was going to kill him, but he refused to back down for fear of me getting hurt, sacrificing himself for another. That was the Dresden way.

My heart shattered as he hit the ground and an explosive, bright white light filled the area he had been in.

The power of a thousand explosions was released as a ball of blue energy. Combined with the energy from the drop, it multiplied quickly and filled the space between the shield in no time at all.

With the sudden pressure, the barrier expanded to accommodate the rush and filled the size of the warehouse. Metal and wood and stone were destroyed in an instant, after either being flattened by the shield or evaporated inside it.

The shockwave from the force spread out through the barrier and into the environment around it. Every window in a building flexed and shattered with an explosive roar as the force was knocked against it. Cars too close to the wave were tipped over and those that weren't were pushed back against the screeching protest of the tyres.

Upon sight of the fiery power, every cop in the area once again took shelter behind cars and scenery, dragging civilians and apprentices down with them. I myself quickly rolled behind her squad car and held a riot shield above my head as the rain of glass slammed down into it.

As the energy wave expanded, it rushed towards my car. With violent winds blowing viciously around, I couldn't move anywhere.

Once again though, Harry saved me.

Getting a grip and accomplishing its original purpose, the blue shield solidified and held the explosion back. Like piranhas, bolts of lightning swam beneath it, eager to continue outwards and eviscerate the environment but still the shield held.

After agonizing minutes of roaring flames and screaming winds, the fire lost its energy and began to dissipate. Upon sensing this, the shield lost its glowing aura and faded away. A bright white light shot out as its hold was released and blinded the area. There was no sound, just a sea of light that reflected off even the most callous of surfaces. Using up its power, the lights went down and I was left in darkness.

Very carefully, I raised my head over edge of the bonnet to take note of the surroundings. Though it was still uncomfortably dark, small fires were dotted around the area that gave off a red glow on the buildings surrounding me.

All the while focusing my eyes, I rose from my sitting position, dumping the riot shield along the way and strode carefully towards the area in front of me. The were a few cries of protest from the cops behind me, but I took no notice and continued forward.

Harry's managed to get out of bad positions before. He could be laying down injured and needing my help. I wouldn't allow myself to think anything else could have happened to him.

These thoughts were put under strain.

Before I had taken shelter, I could picture clearly the sight of the warehouse. Most of its walls had fallen inwards, forming a large pile of metal in the middle. Steel supports jutted out here and there, bent and twisted under the strain of the collapsed building.

This skeleton of a building would have been preferable to the sight now.

I had to stop moving forward as I reached the edge. In front of me was a large hole, smack bang at ground zero. The stone and concrete had been vaporised beyond measure, leaving jagged outlines of the bedrock beneath. The steel poles had melted were they stood, leaving red hot glowing puddles of metal that dotted the area around us. Metal sheet walls that had been thrown upwards by the blast, were now falling into the pit in small clusters.

I frantically scanned the area for signs of life and almost gave up hope before seeing a faint green glow on the edge of the opposite side of the pit from where I was standing.

With new purpose I jumped into the crater and absorbed the fall in a forward roll, before bounding towards the glowing object while carefully avoiding dotted flames and molten metal.

My heart leaped in my chest as I approached the glow and saw a cowering figure in the centre that had wrapped himself around the grey cloak that Harry had forced to wear for his Council meetings.

I walked over to the man in the foetus position and gently clasped his shoulder. I was forced to jump back though as the man suddenly jumped up and whirled round to face me, holding a glowing sword in the direction of my neck. Shock hit me and I almost fell to my knees in pain. It wasn't that the figure was ugly of anything…_it wasn't Harry…_

Standing in front of me was a tall, dark man with a hint of Spanish heritage. Wet dark hair, fell down most of his face as he bared his teeth at me and clutched possessively at something in his arms.

There was a moment of silence before his eyes seemed to recognize me and he relaxed his stance, lowering his sword and looking down at the object he cradled.

I looked around him slightly and saw the object was an unconscious teenage girl, in fact, the same teenage girl Harry and I had rescued from that fortress only hours ago. Molly Carpenter I think her name was.

The man turned back to me with a child like gaze I had seen on many people after a massive trauma like an explosion or a death.

I tried to lock eyes with him, but his gaze shifted slightly to look at the bridge of my nose. Must be another magical user as well.

I ignored his avoidance and put on my most authoritative tone. "Sir? Are you all right? Do you know what just happened?"

He nodded his head slightly. "I was protecting her," he tilted his head towards the girl, "For Harry, though I don't suppose he'll know now."

My body stiffened at the mention of Harry's name and I grabbed the man's shoulders. "Sir, do you know if Harry is alright?"

The man's muscles slumped as he tightened his grip on the sleeping girl, looking away from my eyes and down at the floor. "He…he fell. He took that bastard with him but…he fell…"

My legs finally gave out as I took in the words and the echoed through my mind. I had to hold out my arms onto the ground as I toppled towards the earth.

_nonononononononono_

Tears fell from my eyes, even though I held them tightly shut and splattered the ground in front of me.

Ideas went through my head of how he might have survived, but they were just pictures that refused to face up to the hard truth that Harry was dead.

Throaty cries emitted from my mouth and I began to shiver from the pressure of so many emotions pouring through me.

Fear…anger…pain…loneliness…love…

They all joined into a ball of suffering that racked through my body and refused to calm down or surrender to reality.

A gust of wind suddenly tore through the area and I heard a surprised shout, followed by a thud as bodies hit the ground.

Refusing to ignore my honed instincts, I grabbed the handle of my gun and span round onto my back to aim at the intruders around me.

From seemingly nowhere, several dozen people had randomly appeared at ground level where the warehouse used to be. With a crater being here now though, they had all dropped over a meter and landed in very surprised looking heaps. Most of them wore long brown cloaks and some wore grey. One man was completely covered from head to toe in a black cloak that shielded his face. Others though were dressed in strange outfits. Without focusing, I could pick out a redneck, a native American and even a knight.

Furiously blinking away the tears in my eyes, I focused on the knight. His hard features dug at my memory, before I recognized him as the Carpenter girl's father, who I had seen several times already in Harry's company.

For a moment, he dusted himself off, before tilting his ear to the sky as if hearing someone, and then quickly focusing on his daughter in the arms of the Spanish man behind me, even though she was hidden behind a grey cloak. He cried out her name as he sprinted to grab hold of Molly and hold her tightly, while the other man relinquished his grip and fell to the ground.

He didn't have long to rest though, before a bulky man dressed in flannel with short-cut hair, strode up to him and lifted his body up by the collar. His image floated through my mind until the name Ebenezer popped up. He was Harry's old tutor who had helped us with a vampire problem a while back.

"My lord, Ramirez, what happened here?" Ramirez got some colour back into his face and grasped Ebenezer's arms. "Was it the Red's? Ghouls? Outsiders? What happened here?"

A short Asian women strode past me and touched Ebenezer as she tried to relax him. He got control of himself and carefully laid the man down on the ground while supporting his head. Grateful for the new position, Ramirez looked up at the Asian. "Morgan and Merlin…tried to kill the Carpenter kid…don't know about Morgan…Harry fought Merlin…they killed each other," he stumbled over the last few words and fell into unconscious.

Aside from Carpenter who still murmured soothing sounds to his kid, all eyes turned to me. I wanted to keep them aimed at with my gun, but I lost the will for it. Dropping my weapon to the ground, I laid back into the dirt and closed my eyes.

All the emotional and physical adrenaline during the day suddenly came back to me as I let the quiet embrace of sleep take me with just the image of Harry in my mind. I don't know if I was still crying.

* * *

As my conscious began to drift away from the ignorance of a dreamless sleep, short boosts of memory came to me in snippets.

My first thought was of when Harry kissed me. Our lips explored each other and his hands ran down my sides, springing up goosebumps along my flesh as I shivered with happiness.

I frowned in my sleep slightly as I stood helpless on the ground while Harry fell towards me, fire shooting around him as he shot into the ground and a massive explosion poured from him to engulf a dark man who had threatened his life.

With happiness though, I remembered that we had found Harry again. Me and the strange magical community who were now constantly jumping in and out of my life had searched the area for him and found him buried in the dirt. It only took the sound of footsteps for his eyes to shoot open and stand up with no sign of damage. He looked around at his friends and allies and smiled in a way only he could muster.

Our eyes had locked together and he ran over and grasped me tightly in his arms, burying his face into my neck and making promises to me that we would stay together until the end of it all.

Even now, as I lay in his bed, I could smell his musky scent coating the area. His strong body being held against me as we embraced in the aftermath of the night.

These could only ever be dreams though.

While I was in his bed, he wasn't there to hold me. To comfort me and make promises he would give his own life to keep.

Slowly fluttering my eyelids open, I groaned as sunlight poured in through his tiny apartment window and lit up the shabby disgrace that he called a bedroom. His clothes had been thrown across the floor in chronological order with the clothes from the night before on the top layer and increasing signs of dirty laundry spread to the bottom.

_He never could handle the simple things..._

I didn't want to linger to long in the false hopes of dreams, so I slung my legs over the side of the bed and put my face in my hands. Aside from a few buttons undone, I still wore my standard issue uniform and my hair was streaked about in an untidy fashion, from the pressures of a difficult day.

Hearing voices from Harry's front room, I grabbed my gun – Harry's revolver, and brandished it before me as I slowly stalked into the front room. I struggled to manoeuvre carefully though the hallway, as familiar figures lay sleeping in the hallway, young men and women wrapped in grey and brown cloaks lay on the ground. I studied a few of their faces and was hit with scars and cuts that dotted the resting bodies. They must have been the wounded from one hell of a fight.

_Like the battle last night..._

In the living room, several people were still awake and talking, though thick, dark bags hung below their eyes from a lack of sleep and all of them were leaning on some object or another as standing up was too much of an effort.

Sitting in a chair in the middle was the young man Ramirez from the night before. His wounds had been cleaned and healed, but he still struggled to answer the rapid amount of questions being directed his way. Sitting on the sofa in front of him was a tall, muscular woman with thick white hair, who seemed to be the main interrogator. Next to her was Ebenezer. He was supporting his face in one hand and he massaged his head from which protruded several bulges from what must have been heavy blows to his scalp.

Standing next to them was Charity Carpenter and her husband. She had evidently recovered from our combined assault to rescue her daughter and even from here, I could feel waves of anger pouring from her will as she glanced at the people in front of her. I think only the presence of her husbands hands on her shoulders stopped her from launching at everyone in the room in a wild fury.

Standing in the far corner was a man completely covered by a black robe. Even his face was shielded by a wall of shadow, as he held his arms across his chest and relaxed against the edge of the mantelpiece, carefully avoiding items and photographs from his family and friends that Harry had saw fit to keep. There was even one of me and him at a Christmas party I had invited him too.

_I had put him into an arm lock after he offered a hug for a Christmas present..._

On the coffee table between them all, sat Harry's skull that he had worshipped as if it was an actual person. Evidently, the people in the room thought so too, as the white-haired woman had turned to the skull and was yelling orders at it, "Hrothbert of Bainbridge! I command you to show yourself this instant and tell us how Harry was behaving!" The skull didn't do anything. It just sat there as a skull was forever meant to do.

The black hooded man in the corner looked up at the woman and spoke in a soothing voice, "I don't think he's there any more Luccio. He hasn't spoken since we told him about Harry and I fail to detect his presence at all."

I was about to cut him off mid-sentence, but the hooded man actually stopped talking just before I spoke "What the hell is going on here?"

They all suddenly shot looks to me as I entered the room with my gun hanging freely next to my side, aside from Ramirez who took a few seconds to register that someone new had even spoken. He eventually though looked at me and grinned, "Ah, it's the woman from the crater," before abruptly falling asleep in the chair.

Charity noted my features and the aura of rage dissipated from around her as she walked towards me and lightly held my arms. "Hello again Lieutenant. I wish I could have thanked you for your help under better circumstances but…" She left her words hanging in the air as she tried to think of something more to say. I nodded a thanks to her and she visibly relaxed.

I looked into her eyes seriously and she tensed up once more. "Charity, will you please tell me what has happened."

Her body turned to face the wizards and she stood next to me. Through the layers of uniform, I could still feel her grip tightening on my arm as that same wave of anger flowed back around her.

"The White Council," She pointed a finger at the three figures sitting down, "They tried to kill my daughter. Harry offered to train her. They refused."

A wave of outrage hit me as I stared at the wizards who were still awake. Ebenezer had folded his hands into his lap and was now nervously playing with them. Luccio was keeping her back straight and held a stiff upper lip in our direction but didn't even attempt to look at our faces, let alone our eyes. I stole a glance at Michael and while his face was giving off no sign of emotion, just those same, trustworthy eyes, his knuckles had gone white as he tightly grasped what looked like a crucifix in his hand.

I looked back to Luccio as she took in a breath to say more. "We don't know the entire story yet Mrs Carpenter. Even if Ramirez's account is true, we all must obey the laws of magic and see to it they are not broken," her head turned away from us, "Even if a child broke them."

"YOU IGNORANT BITCH!" The words I yelled surprised everyone in the room, including myself a little. Luccio and Ebenezer hesitated under the verbal assault, but I continued to glare daggers at them. "Harry told me about the trials you take. If he wanted to take responsibility for her, he had every right to. Why would they pronounce her guilty?"

Luccio looked up at me pleadingly, searching her own mind for an excuse, "If the Merlin felt she was too dangerous then it was our duty to take care of her."

"Bollocks," I replied, "You know, Harry told me about your little Council. The way you constantly look down on him like a lesser being. How you hide behind your laws in the name of duty and look to execute all traces rather than help something good to grow!"

Ebenezer arched his eyebrow. "It is not Dresden's place to discuss the White…"

I turned my glare to him and he abruptly fell silent. "Harry did nothing but stand in the defence of those around him. You people tested his morals to the limit until he had been forced to act against you." I drew in a breath and calmed myself down.

"Harry would always avoid taking another life. He was terrified of what he would become…"

I looked at the wizards before me.

"How wrong must this Merlin have been for Harry to willingly sacrifice his life to kill him?"

I span on my heels and walked back to Harry's room, leaving the drawn eyes of the people behind me. Before I reached the door, I felt someone tug at my arm and I turned around to face the black robed man.

"You must understand Ms. Murphy that this was all for the best," he muttered sombrely.

I wanted to scream at him and yell into his face.

I wanted to beat him to death to maybe get rid of some of the pain I was feeling right now.

With no energy left though, I settled for tearing my arm from his and stalking into Harry's bedroom, slamming his door and fell into the embrace of his bedsheets.

As my eyes drooped down and my body relaxed, I went over all the feelings I had for Harry and all the memories that featured him.

I cried myself to sleep as the picture of Harry in free-fall kept flashing through my mind.

Over and over again, I watched him give his life for the safety of another and could only hope that the bright flare that had been his dying power would have extinguished him without the same pain I was feeling now.

_Last night I dreamed of Harry Dresden and the wonderful smile that he would only give me._

* * *

**At the death site of Harry Dresden, no longer Murphy's POV**

* * *

A young couple stalked the edge of the massive crater that had once been an abandoned warehouse. The man examined the edge for a moment before turning around and offering his hand to the young lady. Long white hair whipped around her waist as a small wind blew through the streets and she smiled at the man before accepting his hand and carefully jumping into the pit. Her skin had a warm glow to it and this glow illuminated the features of the man standing next to her. Like her, he also had a bit of brightness in him and it only illuminated the strong muscles in him as the lady took his arm and they walked towards the centre of the crater.

"I still don't understand why you expect to find anything here Lily," the man muttered to himself. "The blast vaporised the very bedrock itself." He told her, waving his free arm at the damage that surrounded him.

Lily cast an annoyed glance at the man before resuming her search on the ground. "You know as well as I do Fix that anything with that much power will have at least tried to protect itself. There is still hope."

Fix started to mutter to himself once more, but was pushed forward as Lily pointed at the ground in front of them, wide-eyed, and jumped up and down. "Right there Fix, I can sense the power. Dig dam you."

With a grumbling moan, Fix grabbed onto the end of a shovel that was protruding from his backpack and started to scoop up dirt at the precise point where Lily had pointed. After just a few scoops, Fix's shovel, slammed into something just below his surface and the shovel bounced off and flew into the night sky.

Fix watched it go up for a few seconds and turned to the now squealing form of Lily. "I was right Fix, keep digging. Hurry before anyone else shows up to claim the find!"

With new perseverance in his heart, Fix jumped to the ground and clawed his way a few inches deeper. As he removed the last layer of dirt, a bright blue shaft of light shot from the hole in front of him and illuminated the area around them. After a tense few seconds, the beam began to fade and the earth around it slumped from the released pressure.

"Fix! You grab one arm and I'll grab the other!"

* * *

I had been in darkness for who knows how long, and I was bored. I managed to pass the time for a bit by pondering if this was death, and I felt I was about to hit a philosophical breakthrough, before my little den was suddenly lit up with a bright blue light of my collapsing shield.

My eyes screamed in pain as I tried to cover them, but strong hands reached through my prison and held onto my wrists, pulling my entire body out into the open air. Before I could start up a good rant that I had created a few hours ago to deal with the God of Death when he came for me, I felt strong, thin arms circle around my neck as Lily pulled me into a hug and was making a strange squealing sound.

"HARRY! I knew we would find you! Fix didn't believe me but I knew I was right!"

More weird sounds erupted from her throat before she reluctantly released me and I glanced over to see Fix standing a little behind her, staring at me with shocked eyes. I put out a hand for him, but his shock changed to a smile as he slapped my hand away and pulled me in for a hug.

I still wasn't up to date on the more recent events, so I just accepted the hugs and patiently waited for the happy couple to calm down.

I stepped back from the pair and looked them over as they tried and failed to suppress the grins on their faces. Fix stepped up, "Mother Summer Harry, we all thought you were dead. Wizards had combed the area for hours and found not even a trace of you."

"Except for me!" Lily interrupted and Fix cast her an annoyed glare before continuing.

"Wait till you see their faces when we go and tell everyone you're alive!"

_"Dresden, we won't stop hunting you…"_

The Merlin's departing words echoed though my head and I looked solemnly at Lily and Fix. My expression must have got to them as they immediately quieted down and conveyed confusion to me.

_"You will die. Your friends will die…"_

As long as I was still alive, the Black Council would keep going after me. Just my state of being would put my friends, family and Karrin in danger.

The two faerie continued to stare at me so I shook my head at them and they looked for an explanation. "Listen to me you two; nobody can know I'm still alive. It's too dangerous for the people around me. I'm too big a target for them to even be associated with me right now!"

Fix nodded in understanding, but Lily glanced up at me with those big eyes and bore into my soul. "What about Ms. Murphy?"

My heart stopped for a moment as I thought about going over to Karrin's house to see her. I just wanted to lie down next to her and hold her strong body in my arms. Never wanting to let go and just stay like that until all the enemy's who had threatened our lives had faded into dust and we could start our lives without a constant sense of fear looming over our heads.

A man could dream, but he could do no more than that.

"I won't risk her life by being there and lighting up our position like a laser sight from a gun. I want to be able to promise her that I will protect her no matter what comes our way and if I'm with her…" I turned my back on Lily, "I won't be able to keep it."

Lily's hand circled around me once more and Fix grasped me on the shoulders. The human contact was comforting but I had important things to do.

"Lily?" I asked and I turned to face her, "That brooch you gave me. Will it grant me any boon I ask of?"

Lily quietly looked at me, "Within reason, yes. Why? What do you ask of?"

I closed my eyes and rubbed the bridge of my nose, before turning to look at both her and Fix. "I need you to erase the experience of this night from your own memories."

The couple glanced nervously at each other and a wave of understanding passed between them. Fix held my gaze and asked, "Are you sure about this Harry? If we think you're dead, we won't be able to help you."

"I know, but there is that possibility that Titania will ask you what you know of me and you won't be able to lie to her. It's too risky."

They both bowed there heads to me, "Very well Harry. As soon as me and Fix leave, our memories of this night will disappear. You will have to make your own way from now on."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence until they both grasped me at the same time and held me. This time I hugged them back and allowed the glow of the Summer faerie to sooth my muscles and relax my throbbing wounds.

"Goodbye Harry." They both proclaimed, and just like that, I was alone.

Shaking my muscles loose, I climbed back out of the crater and into the back alleys of Chicago.

The light dimmed away from me and I allowed the identity of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden to slip into the history books of time.

I grinned as I crossed the city limits and into the open land of the world.

_I had some work to do…_

* * *

**This plot is far from over. I'm currently writing the next few chapters and it will be set around six months after this story.**

**Next Chapter:** ***Annual Report***

**DON'T RUN! The title isn't excellent but you'll understand the concept when you read it.**


	7. Annual Report

This document has hereby been proof read by  Warden Captain Luccio  of the White Council

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**WARDEN COMMANDER for**

**NORTH AMERICA WESTERN COAST**

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**(temporary) WARDEN COMMANDER for**

**NORTH AMERICA EASTERN COAST**

.

**ANNUAL REPORT**

.

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**Name:** Carlos Ramirez 

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**Rank:** Warden Commander 

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**Recent Threats no further than one year ago**

**Level 1**

- 20% increase in Shape-shifter numbers. Have dispatched Warden Jones to investigate reasons. Results due in January

- Disturbance noted at the home of House Raith, current leader of the White Court of Vampires. While the White Court remain a neutral party in the war, they have released no statement concerning this, though there are rumours discovered by our agents that suggest there has been a major power struggle. I will keep the Council up to date with any new information.

**Level 2**

- Several minor attacks from small groups have been made on Wardens and Council members. Interrogations have revealed that our enemies suspect the Council to be weak after the deaths of Merlin Langtry and Warden Commander Dresden. No casualties as of yet, but stronger groups may be planning more coordinated attacks. Heightened security may dissuade attackers.

- Large scale conflict occurred North of Lake Michigan at some point in November. Battle was done under the cover of an avoidance spell and as such, only a dozen bodies were found when I arrived. Identities appear to be members of the Order of the Blackened Denarius with no trace of any coins. Markings around the site lead me to suspect there was a civil war between the Denarians as the only magic used appears to be that of the Fallen. The Knights of the cross are investigating further.

**Level 3**

- No problem but has created major concern. Sightings of agents of the Red Court of vampires has become non-existent. Recent raids on known nests have produced captured Red's but their behaviour is unusual for vampires.

Warden's Simone and Jones who led the attack say that the red's were hesitant to attack them. Possible chance that they have been ordered to not attack. Captives not revealing anything further. _See Report_Simone_G1B for more details._

Communication lines have been carefully set up again. Constant information is sent and the Red Court have yet to even make an offensive

.

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**Activity from Allies no further than one year ago**

**Knights of the Cross**

After the events six months ago, Michael Carpenter of the sword _Amoracchius_ has agreed to continued flow of information. In return though, Carpenter would like assurance from Merlin Ebenezer that matters concerning his daughter Molly Carpenter are explained to him before we are to take action, as to avoid another incidence. From a personal view, I believe the Council should take him very seriously.

**Faerie**

Seelie Court

Reports from the Nevernever confirm that routes in Summer territory have opened up for the use of the White Council. Missionaries have revealed no information though on why agents have not moved against the Red Court. Warden Simone has been assigned the role of investigation head.

**The Fellowship of St. Giles**

The group have begun to expand across the continent. Multiple help centres have been set up with our with resources provided by the Council for their support during the war. I have spoken with the North American representative Rodriguez and she also confirms that their agents have revealed nothing on the erratic behaviour of the Red's.

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**Other Information**

I have discussed matters with many magic users around the country and while they confirm nothing, there are rumours of an organisation connection low-level magic users. I suspect that it is meant to help them with a flow of information but I cannot confirm this. Warden Jones has been assigned to investigate further

**Concerning the deaths of Merlin Langtry and Warden Commander Dresden**

There is still no new information regarding the deaths. It should be noted though that the drop in Red Court activity occurred almost exactly after it was revealed they had both died. From a neutral point of view, there may be a possibility that one, or even both of them may have been agents from the Court. From my point of view however, I believe that Warden Commander Dresden was most likely innocent, considering that Langtry openly used magic against non-magic users. Whether this means he was against us or desperate to kill Dresden remains inconclusive.

**Concerning the disappearance of Warden Commander Morgan**

There is no sign of the body of Warden Commander Morgan, though he is presumed dead having last seen about to engage Warden Commander Dresden.

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**Personal Notes**

_(I hereby swear that any accusations or opinions expressed in these paragraphs reflect my own thoughts and not those of the White Council or any other party)_

The Council may believe many things, but I know in my heart that Warden Commander Dresden was no traitor.


	8. Far from the Gates

**In the Defence**

Series Two

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Far from the Gates

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**Characters:** Mortimer Lindquist  
**Timeline:** AR, Set around four months after the death of Harry Dresden  
**Summary:** Adventure Tragedy. Something is stirring up the dead. Ghosts in every shape and form have been giving a wide birth to a once considered peaceful area of the Nevernever.  
**Author's notes:** Just as a reminder, Mortimer Lindquist is an ectomancer from the books "Grave peril", "Death Masks" and "Dead beat". He communicates with the dead.

* * *

**Mortimer's POV**

* * *

I cannot believe I was doing this.

When I woke up this morning, my body was under the false impression I would just have a day off from the dead. You know, just lie around in bed all day, eating a constant stream of bacon sandwiches and catching up with some programs I had recorded over the past couple of weeks.

What I did not think I would be doing is trekking through some of the back streets of the Nevernever, trying hard to avoid some of the more violent apparitions of the supernatural world while simultaneously looking for some kind of creature that had enough power to make a ghost wet his ectoplasm.

I, ladies and gentlemen, am Mortimer Lindquist, ECTOMANCER! Nobody knows what it is and I only learned off of a random internet page. In the most general of forms, I'm a ghost whisperer. Communicator to the spirits. Messenger of the dead and so on and so forth.

Sadly, this means that my main source of information (as well as income) rely on the magical impressions left by the dead when they depart from this world. So when several hundred of them turn up in my bedroom at four o'clock in the morning, which by the way is a hell of a wake up call, asking for my assistance in a matter of a grave emergency, there was no way I was going to argue with them. It was part gratitude and part blood curdling fear that got me to put on my game face and have a listen to their gentle but firm plea.

* * *

I have no clue how long they had surrounded my bed, but it had been enough time for them to represent a...well...representative to speak on their behalf. From the crowd of transparent presences, a tall blonde man dressed in Victorian clothes popped out of the crowd and sat on the edge of my bed to meet eye level with me. I could tell he was trying to put on a calming smile, but the dead had a sick sense of humour, as he was missing half of his jaw and he didn't actually have any eyes for me to feel compassion from. I resorted to staring at his nose and holding the bed-sheet between us as sort of an improvised barricade.

"_Good morning Honourable Lindquist."_ The words didn't come from his mouth but echoed around in my head. If a house mate (yeah right) chose that precise moment to walk in, they wouldn't be able to see or hear anything, but they would feel a slight chill in the air. I guess those reality ghost shows got at least one thing right. They were still a bunch of amateurs though.

The ghosts eyebrows furrowed in concern. _"Honourable Lindquist, can you hear me?"_ I had drifted off the current subject just then, so I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and focused back on his nose.

"Yes, yes, I can hear you." The ghost nodded his head in acknowledgement.

Centuries ticked by.

I shuffled uncomfortably and glanced at the dead legion around me. "So not to sound aggressive or anything, because you know I always love it when you guys show up and just seeing all your faces..." I spotted a headless man in a suit. "...here...always brings a smile to mine, but I would just like to ask, if its not too much bother, why are you all in my bedroom?"

I distinctly noticed a breeze of fear wash over the room, and for once it wasn't coming from me. It took a lot to frighten the dead, but I failed to follow onto that train of thought, so I settled for being very confused and turning back the the ghost in front of me. At some point he had stopped looking at me, well, not looking looking, but no longer facing his head in my general direction and aiming his face at his lap. _"Honourable Lindquist, we would like to hire you."_

* * *

That's how I found myself skulking through the Nevernever without any weapons at all, just my fists and a special frequency in my voice. I suppose if all else failed, I could scream a very high pitched note at the dead and hope they decide to leave me alone out of sheer annoyance.

Ghosts a merely fragments of who they once were when alive, including mentally. It had taken me another hour of persuasive arguments and question prodding before I could finally build a picture of what they wanted me to do. Since the first time a person had ever died, ghosts had never been frightened of anything. The strong ones knew that they were already dead and not meant for this world and the weak ones were too focused on haunting poor widows or just sitting on a grassy hill and watching the world go by. For some reason now though, they were afraid. At some point in the previous twenty four hours, fellow spirits had suddenly been sucked from where they stood and drawn back into a specific point in the Nevernever like sand in a sink-hole. I was informed by the Victorian man that there was now a ghost free area the size of a human city in the spirit world and they wanted me to find out what was going on.

I jumped behind a dumpster slash car (objects in the Nevernever were very metaphorical at the best of times) to hide from a troop of Griffins that had strolled down the street towards me. They were squawking to each other loudly like drunken teenagers as they passed me and continued forward, oblivious to my presence. That was the seventh time I had almost been caught and I cursed myself for accepting this case. I was not a private investigator and had never wanted to be. The last PI I had known had killed himself and took an entire warehouse with him a few months ago and though I'm not a religious man myself, I bet you all my crystal balls that that was a sign from fate herself.

I had already been to the Nevernever a couple of times, but that was just in short bursts when one of my ghosts lost its concentration and was sent hurtling around random parts of the spirit world. I was used to the desecrated outlines of once great feats of architectural engineering surrounding me on all sides and the quiet hum that came from my ears trying to adjust to the change in pressure. The pressure in the Nevernever isn't higher or lower, but merely something else. Dammit, I'm an ectomancer, not a scientist.

I took on some sombre thoughts. I couldn't let the dead down though. Even though other people, myself included, considered me a frightened fool, I wouldn't stand idly by and watch my ghost friends suffer. Until times changed, most people considered ghosts as a lower class, an ugly stain on society that should be extinguished as soon as magically possible. Only people like me stood up for them and I would gladly give my life to help, what I believed were, the lives of the dead.

Thanks to the little pep talk I had given myself, a glow on confidence was cast around me. Literally. Emotions affected most of the Nevernever, so here, I was a sparkling figure of pride, as I stood up from behind the dumpster-car and jumped from door-front to door-front as I approached the position I had been directed to go to. Hey, even with confidence, I wasn't a stupid fool who was just going to walk down the middle of the street, out in the open. This place is messed up.

Even with troops of Griffins strolling around, I would normally expect hundreds of dead figures to be walking around, with a foothold in both the physical and the spirit world. I've only just noticed though that I hadn't seen a ghost for about half an hour now. Shit, maybe the dead were right.

I finally came to the right place and crouched behind a glowing Jeep that looked as if it had been hit by a car bomb and then had its sharp edges sanded down. The area I had come to was completely deserted. It a simple crossroad from a city built in blocks like New York or something and was surrounded on all corners around by five storey buildings that must have been made in the fifties. Like the dead, this place was an echo of its former glory. Every surface shined, but on closer inspection, potholes covered the uneven roads and masonry had crumbled from all sides of the buildings.

Even for the land of the dead, this place was way too creepy.

I pressed my hand onto the bare concrete and opened my senses. In the mortal realm, I could feel and see the dead. In here (or out here?), my powers would be strong enough for me to sense anything close by, whether it be alive or dead.

I tuned my ears and focused on the area around me. I could just pick up some rumbling vibrations coming from from a building directly in front of me. I eventually noticed that it wasn't a steady hum of energy, but was instead picking up violence and strength as what ever was in that building. The ground and walls around me began to shake from agitation, spilling clouds of dust into the air that had settled for aeons. There was no Sun here, but shafts of light permeated over the rooftops to reflect of the dust, showing me violent breezes that rushed through the area.

There was an abrupt stillness in the area, during which time I lowered my mental barriers to try and get a better understanding of what just happened. A large explosion suddenly emitted from the centre of the building and forced my hand back into my chest as disturbed thoughts tried to stab at my mind. Orange flames shot through every window and overshadowed what seemed to be a cry of pain, before the front wall of the house blew up from its corners and two figures were sent hurtling out of it. At the same time, my wonderful survival instincts kicked in and I leapt behind the Jeep next to me and prayed that no-one had seen me and I could just crawl away, while also keeping an eye on the new characters so I could have a head-start if they began to move towards my position.

I first thought that they were hugging each other, but as they span through the air and into the street, I noticed that both had death grips on their shoulders and were also trying to beat the living crap out of each others faces. When they hit the ground though, they rolled across the spirit concrete (does concrete die?) before the shorter one kicked the other man in the stomach and sent him sliding across the ground and into a lamppost.

In order of "currently the most threatening", I stared dumbfounded at the creature who had knocked the other man away. The thing stood at about five-and-a-half-feet tall and while it had a human-like posture, its skin was blood red and I could see contorted bones trying to break out of its skin. It had a long, beak-like nose and dark, black eyes, as well as talons trying to spring themselves from its fingers and toes. I was a lucky enough ectomancer to not have seen a demon yet and now I understood why others were so desperate to be that lucky. Everything about the demon screamed that it was a killing machine and with my minds walls still slightly open, I could feel its impending presence spreading itself across me.

I was mostly sure I knew where the ghosts had gone and I knew for certain that I didn't literally have a hope in hell of helping them. Little is known about demons, but one universal trait shared by all is that they trade in souls. Whenever in the mortal realms, they will always make bargains with humanity in exchange for a persons soul. When ghosts came into the matter however, they didn't make any kind of bargain. Being just out-of-body souls, demons would just scoop up the ghosts like dust into a pot and drag them kicking and screaming back to a particularly dark portion of the Nevernever. Most people called it Hell.

Though they come from it, it was unusual for demons to be sighted in the Nevernever. When travelling to the mortal realm, they build physical vessels for themselves so that if they are destroyed there, they can be reborn again here. In the Nevernever however, the demon you see here is 100% real. They don't like the fact they can be killed here.

I looked to the other man, while keeping a very tuned awareness on the demon. He had evidently recovered from his body being used as a football and carefully stood up to face the demon again. A long, white cloak whipped around his legs and he pushed it aside a little to avoid tripping over it. Under the cloak, was a dark black and purple, three-piece tunic that sharply contrasted to the the rest of the outfit. It wasn't the most threatening design and was hardly appropriate for battle, but you only needed to look at his face to see his strength. Along the top of his head was stark white hair that had been trimmed into a short, cut. He looked like he was once a handsome man, but there were deep wrinkles under his eyes and across his forehead that looked to be more from stress than age. Sticking out from behind his head was the endings of a long, wooden pole that must have easily reached six feet. Glowing wards dotted the pole that must have flared up when he slammed into the lamppost.

_Fantastic! A Demon and a Wizard!_ I thought to myself, willing my body to flee but being held down by my curiosity. Demons were a dangerous breed, but Wizards were sneaky bastards. A least Demons were honest about their intentions. I don't know which one I fear more.

"Demon Chaunzaggoroth," the man bellowed at his opponent. It had a strong British accent to go with it, which only worried me further. The difference between American and European wizards are majority seen in their style of magic. When I prepare for a summoning, I have to drew in power from the environment around me, which I have spent years arranging to be as energy efficient as possible. As America doesn't have as much magic history in its lands, the power given is usually done in large quantities of simple energy. In Europe however, those guys have been allied practitioners for centuries and as such, ancient magic is buried deep into its bedrock. This gives the Europeans more skill to their spells and allows for very complicated rituals. If America was an army with sticks, Europe would be a single man with a minigun. We've got power but they've got skill.

"Warlock," Chaunzogg...Chanze...The demon nodded his head to the other man. "I was under the false impression you'd never be able to come here," he looked the man up and down and licked his lips, "That doesn't mean though that I'm not ecstatic about your sudden appearance. I have many friends who would like I look at you."

Totally unfazed by the hungry demon, the wizard stared right at it, "For your crimes against me and my kin, I am sentencing you to death. Do you accept the decision," he smiled, "or are you going to make this complicated?"

Chaunzaggoroth grinned back at him and I noticed a sudden tension in the air as it put pressure onto its legs and angled his body towards the wizard. With a sick battle-cry involving intestines and asphyxiation, he leapt straight forwards, no longer touching the ground and flying through the air at the man. To his credit, the wizard didn't even flinch as he lifted his hand up and lightning shot straight into the demon. It screamed in pain at first, but continued to head straight for him and slam its armoured head into his stomach. The wizard was forced to bellow out as all the air in his lungs was pushed out.

For a moment, all was still as physics tried to figure out what was meant to be happening, but sure enough, the demon fell forwards into the dirt as bright orange wards were illuminated around the wizards cloak and he shot backwards down the street. He waved his arms to try and slow himself down and I felt wind moving around me as he used the air to right himself and land back on his feet. The demon had already gotten up again and was sprinting towards the wizard once more. In preparation, he aimed his fist at the ground where the demon was about to step and the concrete exploded, sending fragments of rock into the demons face and sending him flying backwards.

Was was going through my mind at the time was wondering why demons don't bleed. What I should have been thinking about is whether the demon is going to land a meter away from me or on me. Either way, his body was heading straight for my hiding spot and only quick thinking on my part allowed me to roll out of the way as it hit and obliterated the remains of the Jeep. There was now a powerful wizard down the street from me, an pissed off demon only a short distance away and somehow I had rolled right into the open road, in full view of all the attacking parties.

The wizard looked shocked at my sudden appearance and began sprinting towards me, drawing out his pole at the same time and igniting his wards upon it. The demon only looked me up and down for a few seconds before literal, blood-red flames poured from its eyes. I stood up, but was promptly knocked down again by the sound of its voice.

"YOU DARE TO BRING A DEAD-MOUTH HERE!" It had directed the question at the wizard, but its flaming eyes never left the sight of mine. Full blown gales were coming from his mouth a whipping up centuries old dust and dirt. I glanced at the wizard and noticed that though he was still heading for me, his steps had slowed down and he shot a confused look at me before turning towards towards the demon, who was still lying in the wreckage.

From a bird's eye view, all three of us made the corners of a perfect triangle, aside from the one corner that was uncontrollably shaking from fear. The demon knew perfectly well who the immediate threat to it was, but it continued to study every inch of my being, up until that irrefutable moment where it licked its lips and decided to ignore the wizard.

_Shit._

With all the grace of a monster truck, and roughly the same power, the demon bounded off the wreckage and sprinted for me, this time with his long red claws extended out before him in a throttling position. I began to crawl backwards as fast as my arms would carry me but only made a few inches by the time the demon was upon me.

I didn't even see the wizard move. He might be super fast or I was too terrified to focus on anything else, but that didn't change the fact that the demon's head slammed right into an oncoming pole and was knocked into a back-flip that left him lying on the ground right next to the edge of my feet. The wizard used the momentum of the reverberating pole to send it high in the air and strike down towards the demon's stomach. Dazed as it was, it still managed to catch the blow just before it hit his skin and use its strength to lift the man over its body and head first into the ground next to him. As the wizard fell, the end of the pole the demon had grabbed onto lifted up into the air and dragged the demon with it. Just before it descended onto the wizard, he slammed his hand above him and sent roaring air above him. With nothing to grip onto, the demon was sent straight up into the air, reaching maybe twice the height of the buildings around us.

The wizard used this time to hurl himself back into a standing position and direct his orders to my still quivering form. "Lindquist, get the hell out of here now! This is no place for you!" He tracked the demon's flight path and sent a column of fire into to him. I heard a surprised cry.

"But what..."

"GET AWAY NOW!" He pressed his foot against the edge of my knee and I felt magic simmer as he pressed against me and I slid about fifty meters away down the street, the dust making for a surprisingly frictionless material. I stopped with just enough time to see the demon land in the centre of the crossroad with a loud crash. I felt a rumble in the ground around me and a swirling mass of disintegrated concrete twirled in the air, completely coating the sight of the demon's landing point. The wizard stood just at the edge of the cloud, hands gripping tightly around the pole which was now dripping magic from its wards.

With a careful speed, I pressed my hands against the ground below me and sent my conscience into the world. I felt the massive crater that the demon had created, but left no sign of the offender. I felt in every direction around it and found no trace of anything other than me, the wizard and the Nevernever. Then I felt downwards.

My eyes widened and I almost lost my voice, but I managed to hold myself together and warn my saviour. "WIZARD! Beneath you!"

Similar to my own reaction, the wizard's look grew surprised and he frantically tried to jump backwards, but was not fast enough, as a red blur burst from the ground he had been standing on. With practised skill, it pulled the wizards leg upwards and sent his head slamming into the ground and his pole clattered away. Before he could put up a fight, it pulled the grabbed leg and span him around in a single motion and sent him straight into a wall. The wizard cried out as his back impacted against the wall and I saw spider web cracks above his head as he slumped into the ground and didn't move.

Satisfied the immediate problem was taking care of, the demon extended its fangs and carefully strolled towards me. I picked myself up and tried to run, but it grabbed onto the edge of my shirt and threw me into the crater were it had landed, luckily not into the hand-dug hole that lay in the centre. I groaned as the dirt scratched away the skin on my arms and bruises began to from across my back. I looked towards the wizard, but he still hadn't moved so I looked back up again and it had already walked over to my position and stood at the foot of my body.

It's stupid, but at the time, I thought that not making any movement at all might help my predicament somehow.

Sharp teeth gave a wide, unfriendly grin at my eyes and without warning, the demon drew out his longest, sharp finger before stabbing me with it straight through my right calf. I shouted out in pain as the demonic fingers wiggled around inside me and I began to sob. I've been in plenty of fights when I was a kid and I've had my share of mental battled with the dead, but I've never been tortured like this. Never with a tool as wrong and evil as a demon. I grunted through tears as he pulled his finger out, only to feel the burn once more as he sent it straight into my left calf. I cried out and the air shook.

I mean it literally shook. Sounds were still coming from my throat, but the air shuddered at the impact of my voice. The demon pulled out of my calf and stumbled backwards, lessening the pain, but I still kept yelling. A primal instinct was telling me that I should keep doing whatever the hell I was doing and at this current moment in time, instinct was all I had. The demon clutched his sharpened ears and fell to his knees. Loose slabs of masonry was dislodged from the buildings around me and shattered on the ground below. Even the wizard was awoken from unconsciousness and he wildly glanced around at the chaos around us.

Even after the air was gone from my lungs, I somehow continued to yell this supernatural sound and only stopped when I heard the faint whisperings of a similar cry from somewhere far off the distance. I lay back in the dirt and the dust settled, but was immediately sent up again as multiple cries of outrage came from all around us. The demon was frantically backing away from me and shooting looks down all of the roads and even into the deserted buildings windows. it actually looked a little worried, which is as close as your going to get to a frightened demon. The wizard retrieved his pole and edged towards me, never taking his eyes off the demon but I could tell he was trying to sense what the hell was going on.

"What on earth did you do?" he asked me.

I turned to look up at him, "I...I think it doesn't like to be yelled at."

The wizard gave me an amused smirk and leaned down to offer me a hand. I eagerly took it and he pulled me up into a standing position. I was expecting a warm hand from the strain of battle, but his touch felt cold and lifeless. Who was I to talk though. I just single handedly upset a demon and I can barely walk a short distance without resting for a bit.

We both focused all of our attention on the demon, with me standing ever so slightly behind the wizard. The roars were still emanating from around us, but it had stood up and removed its hands from its ears in preparation for a sudden attack, though its ears still twitched now and then. We all stood completely still for maybe half a minute, before the sounds abruptly stopped and everyone was left in confusion.

Out of nowhere, an long, silver arrow whistled through the air and embedded itself in the demon's arm. From the sheer surprise of the attack rather than any pain it might be feeling, the demon darted backwards and away from the direction of the bolt. At the same time, the wizard pressed his hand against the ground and an orange-tinted barrier rose up to encase both of us. More arrows and even a few javelins flew from seemingly random direction and directed themselves at the demon. A few were knocked away by its armoured skin and bounced harmlessly off the wizard's shield, but the majority managed to work its way past the chitinous armour and tear into the demon. It began to panic and pull out the silver arrows and trails of black smoke began to leak from the wounds, sealing them only a few seconds later.

The wall behind the demon seemed to shift slightly out of sync with the rest of the building and the demon sensed the sudden change and span round. Not fast enough apparently, as what looked like the ghost of a Viking shot out of the wall and rushed the demon. He must have easily been eight feet tall and was surrounded by layers of yak fur and muscle with a large, two-handed mallet in his grip. Without hesitation, the astral figure drew back his weapon in a large radius and span it directly into the demon chest. It tried to block the blow, but the hammer shattered both its arms and sent it careening away.

The ground began to rumble from the pressure of marching feet and in a final sigh against the forces that had been aggravating it, the building behind me lost structural support and fell in on itself. I squinted down the four roads and tried to pierce through the natural fog of the area. I saw nothing and only felt the distance rumble. Once again, I pressed my hand to the ground, copying the movements of the wizard and spread out my senses. In my mind, the white fog suddenly cleared away and the view I was left with didn't let me know whether I should be joyful or worried. The wizard must have felt my hesitation, as he turned towards the fog. "What? What can you see? It's bad isn't it?"

I shook my head towards him and glanced around the area we were in. On all sides, we had been surrounded and we were being inevitably boxed in. With a unanimous battle cry, hundred upon hundreds of ghosts burst from the veil, transparent bodies working their way across the concrete and directly at the demon. I don't think they all meant to run directly into the wizards shield but they are hardly used to meeting an object they can't go through. The wizard had to grit his teeth as multiple representations of the dead bounced off the shield several times before realising they could walk around it.

The demon tried to stand up again, but promptly fell to his knees as a tall ghost crept behind him and stabbed two gold hilted daggers into his back. I studied the ghost's Victorian clothes and then quickly recognized him as the blonde man I had met in my bedroom earlier. He noticed my gaze and his eye socket winked at me (I think), and he seamlessly disappeared before the demon's curled fist could smash into him.

Seeing no immediate threat to us, the wizard relaxed his shield and straightened up to watch the repeated hit and run tactics on the demon. Ghost after ghost flew by it and through it every time its back was turned, injuring it with a manner of implements from bone carved swords to wooden mallets. On all sides, it was surrounded. Wound after wound opened and resealed itself, leaking small puffs of smoke into the air around it. The demon was clearly tired as its movements had become sluggish, but only sluggish for a demon. It was still a top notch killing machine that could get in a few shots of its own. I watched helplessly as a pale, skinny man darted forwards and I immediately recognized he had been to slow. Sensing his movement, the demon turned to meet his attack and lashed out at the man's head, severing it from the body. He didn't even have time to cry out as both head and body disappeared from view, leaving only a hazy cloud of where he had once been. Another one, dressed in SWAT armour with the vague impression of bullet wounds in his chest, was hit by a long gash across his belly, sending chunks of dead flesh into the air.

I cringed at the sight of this slaughter and even the wizard next to me must have realised what the dead were putting on the line to help us as he began to step forwards. "I need to get to Chaunzaggoroth." (There we go, THAT'S his name) "How can I get past them?" he asked me, his tone neutral but trying to hide an anger. The ghosts had completely surrounded Chaunzaggoroth, but they also cut us off from it, leaving the wizard out of the loop.

I turned my attention to the section that he needed to get through and the mere thought of them moving sent them stumbling backwards out the way. I hadn't forced them out of the way, in fact their faces were almost apologetic from being in our way in the first place. The gap left a clear run to Chaunzaggoroth. The wizard looked at me and gave me an inquisitive look as I shrugged my shoulders. He grinned at me again and then darted forwards with pole in hand and jacket sailing.

Just before they hit each other, I felt the wind rush around me a direct themselves to Chaunzaggoroth. I had just enough time to mentally ask the ghosts behind Chaunzaggoroth to move as the wizard focused his attention on its chest and sent a violent gale straight at it. Not expecting the attack, it was forced backwards into a wall and held there. Without breaking a step, lightning shot from the wizards pole and into Chaunzaggoroth, blue and white light coursing its way around the demon's body and paralysing its muscles.

With no more energy left, the demon's wounds failed to close and its shoulders slumped down. Even as weak as it was, it still managed to deeply glare at the wizard, pure anger burning in its eyes. It didn't even twitch from the pain and the wizard angled his pole and stabbed it into the demon's chest. A pulse of white light shot through the weapon and into Chaunzaggoroth's body. White gas poured from its wounds and dripped from its eyes, but it still never turned its glare from the wizard. Not once did its muscles shake as its skin began to pucker and fall apart. As silent as it had continually been, its body exploded into a shower of red and white dust that faded from sight as soon as it hit the ground.

Tens-by-tens, the ghosts turned to leave, some just fading from sight and other just walking down the street like they were human. With memories being the only thing they had now, maybe they were.

After they departed, it was just me, the wizard and the Victorian man left at the crossroad. They wizard somehow managed to strap his pole to his back and he bent down to retrieve two, gold-hilted daggers from the ground. Straightening up, the wizard handed the daggers to the ghost and he accepted them gratefully. _"Why thank you good ser. And an extra compliments for helping our man Lindquist."_ I must have been grinning ear to ear. He said 'helping' rather than 'protecting' or 'guarding' or 'making sure he doesn't do anything stupid'. The wizard didn't seem dismayed by the comment at all but tried to voice his objections as the ghost lashed out and grasped his arm in a handshake. The ghost went abruptly still and I could see the wizard fingers readying themselves to grab onto his pole.

Centuries ticked by.

The ghost looked down at his feet. _"Well then, that was surprising."_ The wizards eyes grew larger. Tension took from in the Nevernever and I narrowly dodged a stone box that had materialised from nowhere.

Shocked, the ghost shook his head and smiled at the wizard. Tension broke and the stone box turned into a pillow. _"But thankfully, none of my business."_ He nodded to the wizard and received a nod back. The handshake was released. _"Well anyway, as a gift, I shall give you a lift back to the mortal realm,"_ the ghost turned to my direction, _"and thank you honourable Lindquist. We are all very grateful for your service and you can expect a reward in the near future."_

I grinned back to the ghost, "Well thank you. I suppose I'll be seeing you again back on the other side?" I think I put to much up into the comment as I certainly didn't want another repeat of today.

He laughed, _"Have no fear Lindquist. We would not like another repeat of today either."_

Had he read my mind? Just as I tried to voice my objections to that very sick thought, he grasped onto the wizards shoulder and they both disappeared from view. So I stood there, alone, just to see if anything else was about to try and kill me. It all hit me at once. _I just helped to kill a demon_, I thought to myself. Waves of self gratification washed over me.

I turned towards the crater that the demon had left behind and poured will into the area around me. Without so much as a groan, the concrete folded back into its original shape and erased any signs of destruction from the area. I smiled inwardly and outwardly and once again, I began to glow with pride. With a flick of my wrist, a wooden door with a glass window appeared in front of me. Looking through the glass, I could see my bedroom through it and noticed that something had changed my bedsheets, switched the TV on and left a plate of still warm bacon sandwiches on my night stand. Opening the door, I walked into my bedroom and allowed the portal to fade from view as if it had never been there.

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**Next Chapter:** The Royal Kingdom

**Recommended Song: **Pain by Jimmy Eat World

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**A Note from the Author**

**Sadly, I have given up on this story and will not be writing any more chapters. It's been about eight-and-a-half months since I updated a new chapter and I have not found any inspiration to continue In the Defence. I give my apologies to all those who have put this on their story alerts and I want to thank all the people who wrote reviews, without which I would not have gotten this far.**

**If anyone is interested in continuing the story themselves, they are more than welcome too. You don't have to tell me, but if you send me a message, I can send you back notes on where I was possibly going to take this story as well as write the title and author of your story here so people can continue reading.**


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